Mohile Parikh Center for the Visual Arts

The Mohile Parikh Center for the Contemporary (MPCC), will screen two documentaries on Italian architecture and design on September 30, 2009 at 6.00 pm at the Little Theatre of the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai. Free passes are available at the Mohile Parikh Center.

Summary: A series of portraits from which comes out the wealth of meanings of the term design, which avoids any definition that claims to be univocal and conclusive. The author’s story has been collected in video interviews which are filled with spontaneity and immediacy of the conversation, in which the expression of experiences, reflections and considerations about life and work of planning is free flowing.

Achille Castiglioni (Architect): Achille Castiglioni was a renowned industrial designer. He was often inspired by everyday things and made use of ordinary materials. He uses the minimal amount of materials while creating forms with a maximum effect.

In 1982 Castiglioni created the cutlery design called “Dry” for Alessi, Alessi’s first cutlery line and a seminal product. The design was something of a reaction to the over-formalist, over-functionalist decades of particularly Scandinavian design. Castiglioni’s method, to have “a constant and consistent way of designing, not a style” led him to help create new products to restore Italy’s quality of life in the post-war years and to innovate upon the household object.The New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has his most important designs in its permanent collection.

Richard Sapper (Designer): Richard Sapper is a German industrial designer located in Milan, Italy. He has received numerous international design awards, including 10 prestigious Compasso d’Oro industrial design awards, the first being in 1959, and 15 of his products are in New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as a permanent collection.

In 1980 he became the IBM corporate industrial design consultant and began designing portable computers, including the first ThinkPad 700C in 1992 and follow-on models such as ThinkPad 770. Sapper continues today to influence the iconic ThinkPad brand as design consultant to Lenovo after it acquired the IBM PC Division in May 2005.

We will host a presentation and discussion titled Staged Archives: Fictional History on September 18, 2009 at 6.30pm at the Max Mueller Bhavan Auditorium. The artist, Maryam Jafri will present her videos, installations and photo collages. The discussant for this program is Sharmistha Ray (Writer and Director, Bodhi Art, Mumbai).The program is free and open to all.

For more information, click here.

We will host a students workshop titled Mathematics through Origami on September 10 and 11, 2009 at the Sea View Room of the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai. The workshop will be conducted by Ravindra Keskar (Lecturer, St. Xavier Institute of Engineering in Mumbai).

Participating NGOs: Aseema, Doorstep School, Muktangan and The Vatsalya Foundation.

For more information, click here.

We will host a panel discussion titled Tyeb Mehta: Life and Art on September 5, 2009 at 6.30pm at the Little Theatre of the National Centre for the Performing Arts.This memorial event will focus on Tyeb Mehta, the man and the artist; presented with ample visuals, the panel discussion will delineate the creative graph of the artist whose astonishing oeuvre made him a legend in the realm of Indian Art.The program is free and open to all.

Panelists: Gieve Patel (Artist & Poet) | Girish Shahane (Art Critic)
Discussant: Mallika Sagar Advani (Art Consultant)

For more information, click here.

We will host a presentation titled Jyoti Bhatt: Parallels that Meet on August 28, 2009 at 6.30pm at the Little Theatre of the National Centre for the Performing Arts.The artist Jyoti Bhatt will present his works which includes mediums such as painting, prints and photography. The discussant for this program is Roobina Karode, an art critic, educator, writer and curator, based in Delhi. This program is free and open to all.

For more information, click here.

The Mohile Parikh Center for the Contemporary (MPCC), will screen two documentaries on Italian architecture and design on August 13, 2009 at 6.00 pm at the Little Theatre of the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai. Free passes are available at the Mohile Parikh Center.

Summary: A series of portraits from which comes out the wealth of meanings of the term design, which avoids any definition that claims to be univocal and conclusive. The author’s story has been collected in video interviews which are filled with spontaneity and immediacy of the conversation, in which the expression of experiences, reflections and considerations about life and work of planning is free flowing.

Andrea Branzi (Architect): Branzi was born in Florence, where he also graduated in architecture. Currently he lives and works in Milan, Italy. His work and interests relate to industrial design, architecture, urban planning, and cultural promotion. He also works as a professor of industrial design at the Politecnico di Milano University.

Ettore Sottsass (Designer): One of the most significant counter-forces to modernism in the history of design, Ettore Sottsass made monumental artistic contributions to every decade since 1945. His remarkable career produced a provocative body of work, including architecture, furniture, industrial design, glass, ceramics, painting, photography and a wealth of writings. With this work he intellectually and aesthetically challenged the conventional wisdom of forms and proportions for over 65 years.

Sottsass was continually driven by a personal search for a new language of modern design. His rigorous pursuits led to the creation of such groundbreaking movements as radical design, anti-design, post-modernist architecture, and the founding of Memphis in the early 1980s.

The Mohile Parikh Center for the Contemporary (MPCC), will screen the film Arthur C. Clarke - The Man who saw the Future (Documentary) directed by Philip Smith on June 25, 2009 at 6.00 pm at the Little Theatre of the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai. Free passes are available at the Mohile Parikh Center.

Arthur C. Clarke has been hailed as ‘one of the true geniuses of our time’. His novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey, was one of the greatest space adventures ever written, and the film of the book won Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick cult status. A one-man think tank, Clarke is listened to by the United Nations, US Congress, Microsoft and NASA.

In a rare interview from his tropical paradise home in Sri Lanka, he talks about his life, from his upbringing in rural Somerset in England, to the writing of his latest best-seller, 3001: The Final Odyssey. This is a unique profile, amply illustrated by specially-filmed extracts, CBS coverage of the Apollo moon landing and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of 2001.

We will host a film screening titled Art 21: Art in the Twenty-First Century on June 19, 2009 at 6.00pm at the Little Theatre of the National Centre for the Performing Arts. This program is organized in association with Art, Resources and Teaching, Bangalore.

Art: 21–Art in the Twenty-First Century is a series that focuses exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists in the United States. Fascinating and intimate footage allows the viewer to observe the artists at work, watch their process as they transform inspiration into art, and hear their thoughts as they grapple with the physical and visual challenges of achieving their artistic visions. Art:21 takes viewers into the artists’ lives, unfiltered, for a rare encounter with the creative process in action and an exciting opportunity to hear what cutting-edge artists are thinking about as they work.

Place & Contemporary Art

How does contemporary art address the idea of place? How do artists working today reveal and question commonly held assumptions about land, home, and national identity? The Art:21 documentary “Place” explores these questions through the work of Laurie Anderson, Richard Serra, Sally Mann, Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, and Pepón Osorio.

Consumption & Contemporary Art

How does contemporary art address the idea of consumption? How do artists question commonly held assumptions about commerce, mass media, and consumer society? The Art:21 documentary “Consumption” explores these questions through the work of the artists Barabra Kruger, Michael Ray Charles, Matthew Barney, Andrea Zittel, and Mel Chin.

We will host a short course on Philosophy: The Embodied Self and Shadows of Ignorance: A Contemporary Introduction to Indian Philosophical Debates on May 20, 21 and 22, 2009 from 9:30am - 5.30pm at the M.C. Ghia Hall, Fort, Mumbai. The course will be conducted by Arindam Chakrabarti (Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA).

Registrations open for both students and non-students. For more information, please visit: MPC Courses: A New Learning Initiative

We will host two presentations by Sundar Sarukkai on May 14 and 15, 2009 at 6.30pm at the Little Theatre of the National Centre for the Performing Arts. This program is free and open to all.

Sundar Sarukkai is a Professor in Philosophy at the School of Humanities, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore. He is trained in physics and philosophy, and has a PhD from Purdue University. His research interests include Philosophy of Science and Mathematics, Postmodernism, as well as Philosophy of Art. Sarukkai has been a Homi Bhabha Fellow, Fellow of the Shimla Institute of Advanced Studies and PHISPC Associate Fellow. He is the author of the following books: Translating the world: Science and Language, Philosophy of Symmetry and Indian Philosophy and Philosophy of Science, and co-editor of two volumes on Logic and Applications and is an Editorial Board member of the Leonardo Book Series, an influential series published by MIT Press on science and art.

Lecture I: Postmodernism and Philosophy of Art

Lecture II: The Nature of the ‘Contemporary’