Bengaluru: The arts should not be static; they should evolve and adapt. Opportunities, be it from technology or from the corporate world, need to be grabbed and managed well,” said acclaimed director, screenwriter and producer Adoor Gopalakrishnan at a panel discussion on ‘Creative Approaches to Sustainability’ at IIM Bangalore on 22 January 2017. He stated that only when people pay to enjoy the arts, can artistes thrive.
Mr Gopalakrishnan said “Why must we only depend on government patronage? In our country, arts and culture are given last priority – they come after sports in every budget! So it is important to educate people on their responsibility to provide sustenance to the performing arts be it ‘koodiyattam’ or ‘kathakali’.”
Building on the theme of sustenance, director of Junoon, the travelling theatre company, Sanjna Kapoor spoke of the crying need for professional management in the field of the arts. “Although there is a rich variety of the arts in India, we are not doing anything to value them or make them flourish. When we urbanize, if we don’t think of spaces for the arts, it is going to be detrimental to the health of the country. Our role as artistes is to claim our spaces, explore terrifying and new areas and shout out our needs.”
On the subject of technology, while Mr Gopalakrishnan, the minimalist, observed that technology often diminishes palpability but can be harnessed by better technique, Sanjna chose the middle ground, suggesting that technology can help the artiste if used well. “The arts should not be static; they should evolve and adapt. Opportunities, be it from technology or from the corporate world, need to be grabbed and managed well.”
Responding to the role of an artiste in society, Odissi, Chau and Manipuri danseuse Ms Sharon Lowen said an artiste must be a risk taker. “Creativity is the opportunity to keep exploring and learning, and to keep taking risks.” Indian classical dancer and choreographer Alarmel Valli spoke about the process of creating art. “Art becomes a cliché when the artiste becomes too secure. Vibrant tradition can fall prey to straitjackets. As artistes, we need to understand traditions, practice and internalise them and come up with something new. We should take the ‘then and there’ and make it our ‘here and now’,” she explained.
Award-winning film maker and screenwriter Vipin Vijay commented on a different note when he confessed that contemporary artistes need to speak their mind more often. “As a film maker, I see myself more as an artisan and less as an artiste.” Actor, director and screenwriter Pawan Kumar, whose films ‘Lucia’ and ‘U-turn’, have seen commercial and critical success spoke of sustenance in the context of his own creative journey from dropping out of engineering college to staging plays in an almost-empty theatre to enjoying box office success. “
Earlier in the day, while welcoming participants to the round table, Prof. A. Damodaran said the forum was not a lit fest or a film fest, but a platform to explore whether simple can be beautiful, in the context of minimalism. IIM Bangalore’s Dean Faculty Prof Ishwar Murthy pointed out that IIM Banglore strives to create a platform for exchange of ideas. “You can plant seeds of thought here today and things will happen. You can create the dots in a way that we all connect them,” he said.
