CONTAGION: Performance, Space, Community

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, all gatherings have come to a grinding halt. Human-to-human contact has suddenly become dangerous, spaces and occasions that bring us together are now looked upon with suspicion, and un-camouflaged faces are a rare sight. In losing the ability to gather, we have also realized how vital it is for us to assemble together, and to have public spaces that encourage and welcome this most human of desires.

The performing arts sector across the world is among the worst hit. A major response has been to go online, and in the rush to do so, we often replace the live with the digital, rather than look at the digital as a new and different space and opportunity that we can also turn our attention to. The live experience languishes precisely when it needs us to interrogate what makes it unique, and reimagine why we need it and what it could be in a post-pandemic scenario.

The tactile, visceral, sensorial bedrock of human-to-human contact in real time, place and space is fundamental to the live performance experience. As we reckon with these new realities, we are faced with an incredible opportunity to revisit our pasts and reshape our futures by addressing fundamental questions about the human experience and the creative magic of being together.

This is where this programme steps in, with a conviction that the live performance experience is vital for the health of a society and that performance spaces and experiences should be re-imagined as a celebration of that vitality. A series of 8 curated conversations and presentations invites speakers and attendees to address performance and those who create it as an art and part of the human act of assembly. Through these cross-sectoral interactions, we hope to imagine spaces to serve the artists, audiences and formats of tomorrow without invalidating, forgetting and replacing those of yesterday.

The programme is curated by Vikram Iyengar, Sharvari Sastry, Christoph Knoch in collaboration with the Pickle Factory Dance Foundation.

Registration starts from 02.09.2020.

To register for the programme please click HERE

(All programme timings in IST)