A one of its kind programme for experimental films and new media art in Eastern India.
TENT, Kolkata -an acronym for ‘Theatre for Experiments in New Technologies’ -- is an imaginary, conceptual and mobile space, which was initiated in 2012. TENT has been functioning as an independent and alternative art space that speaks to the fluidities and experiments with new media forms. It has been able to generate persuasive linkages between art-practioners, researchers and independent organizations through screenings, shows, talks, discussions, workshops, and international collaborations. TENT is a space for critical thinking, discussions and presentations, and acts as a bridge between theory and practice, research and art works.
Inspired by the Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov’s early experimentations with what they described as the “Kino-eye” or the zealous use of camera to explore contemporary modern life, the organizers propose that filmmaking and other arts are not merely a “reproduction”, but a practice, a process, and a “creation”. Since 2014, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata has been an active supporter of the festival and has enabled a steady flow of experimental films from internationally renowned and pioneering festivals such as Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, and Kasseler Dok Fest.
The Pandemic 2020 has bestowed upon us a newer perspective of the worlds we populate. Also newer modes of communication – the umpteenth Webinars, for instance – have redefined notions of time and place. We are clearly ‘one’ world now, occupying multiple times, and experiencing things from disparate vantage points. Moreover, moving images have always been a play between time and space. Therefore, this dynamics of visual arts, new media and new social conditions have provoked us to reimagine TENT Little Cinema International Festival as the TENT Biennale.
The Biennale provokes us to think beyond time / space continuum and think through multiple media forms. Therefore, we plan to involve ‘other’ expressive modes, besides moving images, for example, arts which have transpired through photography, old and new mediums and/or print media. Therefore, in the forthcoming programme we wish to engage with VR and video game artists, as well as print media artists – inclusive of graphic or comic book writers and artists – and revive the rhizomatic nature of art practices across decolonizing worlds. The new design of TENT Biennale is indicative of that.
TENT is administrated by a filmmaker / visual artist / researcher duo – Madhuja Mukherjee and Avik Mukhopadhyay.
The programme is presented jointly by TENT and Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata.
If you have any queries then kindly write to
tentbiennale@gmail.com
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