Tag: galerie max mueller

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Attend: Photo exhibition of Chitpur Road, Kolkata

21 German photographers got together to document, celebrate Kolkata’s Chitpur Road. Mumbaikars can see the results at Max Mueller Bhavan today.
by Galerie Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai

Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai will today present ‘Calcutta: Chitpur Road Neighborhoods’, a presentation of photographs by 21 German photographers, under the guidance of Peter Bialobrzeski. This body of work is unique in its methodology as its main aim was to develop a coherent, unified approach towards the subject. It challenged traditional ideas associated with originality and aimed at creating a more universal aesthetic of photography shared by these 21 photographers.  This reversal of thinking was in itself a challenge, and it was absolutely important to overcome it in order for the project to be a success. The participants worked in groups and took turns to direct the shoots. Their aim was to “A good picture a day”.  They worked under the collective name:  ‘A Kolkata Heritage Photo Project’, and are the joint authors of this body of work.

During the 19th century, Kolkata was one of the most economically affluent cities in India under the British, the city elites demonstrated their affluence by building huge palaces in a unique mix of traditional Moghul architecture with classical and Victorian elements. Today, the neighbourhoods around the historical axis of Chitpur road in North Kolkata, still exhibit the remnants of this architecture style. Though decaying as architecture monuments, they still house a vibrant community. The project aimed at capturing these two extremities of the area, without deviating from their set approach.

In 2008, Hatje Cantz published the book ‘Calcutta: Chitpur Road Neighborhoods’, based on this project. Though all the 21 photographers were students of Peter Bialobrzeski at the University of Arts Bremen in 2006, today they are all individual professional photographers. The Kolkata Heritage Project consists of Claudia Aguilar, Johanna Ahlert, Björn Behrens, Jörg Brüggemann, Tine Casper, Franziska von den Driesch, Anja Engelke, Tobias Gratz, Christian Güssow, Dörte Haupt, André Hemstedt, Manja Herrmann, Torben Höke, Britta Isenrath, Joanna Kosowska, Jørgen Kube, Pia Pollmanns, Silke Schmidt, Inga Seevers, Marion Üdema, Sandy Volz.  

The exhibition is a presentation of photographs by twenty one German photographers, under the guidance of Peter Bialobrzeski can be seen from October 1 to 31. The Mumbai presentation is designed by Tanvi Mishra and Kaushik Ramaswamy.

(Picture courtesy Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai)

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Attend: Book reading by Katharina Hagena

Bestselling German author Katharina Hagena will read from her book ‘Der Geschmack von Apfelkernen’ today, at the Max Mueller Bhavan.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Katharina HagenaFor German author Katharina Hagena (in pic on left), her memories have a taste, a sapidity, an aftertaste, an aroma. Packed with gorgeous imagery and undertones of buried secrets, her book The Taste of Apple Seeds (Der Geschmack von Apfelkernen) is an international bestseller.

This evening, Katharina will read from this and some of her other books at the Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai. She will also have a conversation with Ranjit Hoskote and will interact with the audience.

In Der Geschmack von Apfelkernen, when Bertha dies, her granddaughter Iris inherits her house and finds herself back in the home where she and her cousin used to play dress-up in the summer holidays. She wanders through the rooms and garden, a timeless world where red currants turn white overnight, where a tree blossoms twice, villages vanish and women shake sparks out of their fingers. But the garden is now wild and overgrown. After she fell out of the apple tree, Bertha became absent-minded, then forgetful. Eventually, she didn’t even recognise her own three daughters. Iris stays in the house on her own for a week. She cannot decide whether she wants to keep it. She swims in a black lake, receives a visitor, kisses an old friend’s brother and paints a wall.

While she wanders from room to room, she gropes her way through memories and things she had forgotten: What did her grandfather really do before he went to war? Which men were Bertha’s daughters in love with? Who ate his apple with the seeds? Finally, Iris recalls the night her cousin Rosmarie had the terrible accident: What was Rosmarie doing on the conservatory roof? What did she want to tell Iris? Iris senses there are several ways to forget. And remembering is only one of them.

 Katharina Hagena will read German and English excerpts from her books. Head to the Library, Max Mueller Bhavan, Kala Ghoda, at 6 pm. 

(Pictures courtesy ebookee.org, www.zimbio.com)

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Attend: ‘Noise Life’, sound and video exhibition

The Desire Machine Collective will unveil their first solo exhibition in India this evening at the Max Mueller Bhavan, Kala Ghoda.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

This evening, the Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai and Project 88 will host Desire Machine Collective’s (DMC) first solo exhibition in India. Noise Life is DMC’s new video and sound work, historicising the representation of Assam. In it, the artist duo engages French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s term ‘schizoanalysis’, which privileges empirical sensation and intensity over meaning.

More personal than other works by DMC, the piece points to excessive states of perception occurring in exceptional experiences of blindness or deafness. The work overwhelms the viewer with a chaos of sensations, and attempts to convey how we make complex sense of our lives and express our experiences.

While the videos will be displayed at Project 88, DMC continues their engagement with schizoanalysis at Galerie Max Mueller by using hundreds of photographic works of a single motion to create the illusion of movement. Additionally, Alt-rock band Digital Suicide will perform at Galerie Max Mueller at 6.15 pm during the opening.

Head to Galerie Max Mueller, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai, Kalaghoda, at 6.00 pm, and 7.30 pm at Project 88, BMP building, NA Sawant Marg, Colaba.

(Picture courtesy DMC and Max Mueller Bhavan)

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