On the night of 8 November, a welcome occasion was held on the cultural centre Romantso (Athens) as part of the inventive programme of Safe Havens Conference 2023. The occasion featured a creative intervention titled Dark & Delicious by puppeteer Varun Narain and his companion Shaad Qureshi, who’re in exile from India because of the oppression they face for addressing queer matters of their exhibits. Inspired by the work of scientists J.C. Bose and Monica Gagliano, the efficiency combines puppetry and appearing to convey fantastical creations to life, exploring themes of queer id and sustainability. The puppets are intricately designed to replicate the botanically correct type of actual vegetation. This that includes occasion was in collaboration with Safemuse and Nordic Black Theatre.
About Participants
Varun Narain is a Queer puppeteer and stay efficiency director who believes in blurring bodily, psychological and organic boundaries. His work (since) 1994 has questioned and hilighted myths round gender and sexuality. After being the primary Indian artist in residence in Switzerland (Facilitated by Prohelvetia, 2007) and educating Puppetry and modern communication at The Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia University (for over 10 years) and likewise the Guru Gobind Indraprastha University in New Delhi. Varun’s current scenario as a queer artist resonates in his work the place he appears at intelligence and survival methods on the planet of vegetation, fungi and lichens. Varun has additionally educated in Indian classical music (Sitar) beneath the tutelage of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. He presently makes use of his information to compose underlays for his performances. For the previous 5 years he has been scripting, fabricating and executing performances with gender-fluid and inter-species characters impressed by discoveries in life science and the wooden extensive internet.
Shaad Qureshi is an artist and a performer who likes to specific himself in numerous inventive methods. He believes in equality and integrity for everybody. He explores life utilizing nonetheless and video images in city and rural situations. He additionally writes poetry by processing situational actuality and expressing it as couplets or verse in Hindi, Urdu and English. He is educated in appearing strategies from ‘Barry John acting studio’. He assisted and documented ‘Fragile Kinships’ an Art Soiree at The Embassy of Switzerland, New Delhi, 2019. He has labored on the Kingdom of Dreams as an actor on stage within the Musical Extravaganza, Jhumroo, primarily based on the life and music of the Indian artist Kishore Kumar. During the covid pandemic together with puppeteer Varun Narain he acted within the on-line efficiency, I’m a Plant, for Same Boat Theatre Collective, in addition to within the multidisciplinary collaboration Tales of Hans Christian Andersen. He assisted Varun at Spielart Theater Festival 2021 in Munich, Germany and documented his efficiency The Spice Chronicles. He and Varun have created and carried out a present entitled Dark & Delicious.
About Freedom Talks
The Freedom Talks sequence is concentrated on points concerning threats in the direction of inventive freedom, free press and intangible heritage. It is carefully linked to the annual world Safe Havens convention. Guests within the Freedom Talks sequence are extremely educated and prolific actors within the world Arts Rights Justice sector – combating for inventive freedom. The Freedom Talks goal to share area and broaden the narrative of who can take centre stage by lending the model to totally different organisations throughout the sector. The talks are offered in – or translated to – English. The talks had been funded by the Swedish Institute (SI) in 2021 and 2022. The recordings may be watched by way of our web site and our companion HowlRound, the place earlier occasions are additionally archived.
The 2023 convention was organised by the Safe Havens Freedom Talks (SH|FT) in partnership with the UNESCO-Aschberg programme and supported by the Swedish Arts Council/SIDA Artistic Freedom Programme, and Landscapes of Hope by way of Action for Hope.