Southbank Centre’s Alchemy Festival
01 April 2011
An eleven-day journey into UK-South Asian relations
Now in its second year, Alchemy is the Southbank Centre’s eleven-day journey into the richness, contrasts and confluences of the relationship between the UK, India and South Asian culture.
As the UK’s leading cultural relations organisation, the British Council has partnered with Southbank Centre to bring a series of high profile speakers from India and Pakistan to produce a series of discussions, debates and live performances which link the arts sector in the UK, India and South Asia to tell the story of cultural relations work between nations.
The appearance of author, scholar and experimental musician Amit Chaudhuri, Unicorn Theatre’s performance of the Snow Queen, and a long-distance cyber link-up between Mumbai in India and Deal in Kent for Matthew Sharp’s Whale Song are just some of the highlights of this year’s festival (for full events listings see below).
Rebecca Walton, Director of Arts at the British Council comments: “Following on from Alchemy last year, which attracted in the region of 12,000 people, we hope that this year’s festival will be a huge success. The festival looks at the Indian subcontinent’s fast-changing economic and cultural landscape, and how increasingly crucial its relationship to the UK is. Alchemy is a real opportunity for key arts organisations to learn from each other, debate and showcase talent.”
Alchemy features an array of artists whom the British Council has worked with previously through ‘Connections through Culture UK-India’, a programme that encourages cultural exchange between UK and South Asian organisations and works towards collaborative projects and products.
Through this programme, Southbank Centre’s Artistic Director, Jude Kelly, alongside Rachel Harris, Southbank’s Head of Participation travelled to India to research and inform the programming of Alchemy.
Speaking of this experience, Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre, said: “As the name and spirit of Alchemy suggests, the ambitions of this festival are only made possible by the coming together of numerous partners, arts organisations and key cultural figures both in the UK and the Subcontinent. In inviting us to travel to India to research and develop these relationships and in supporting numerous artists to come and take part in the festival itself, the British Council’s contribution to the continuing development of Alchemy both in terms of ambition and depth is hugely valued.”
On 15 April, the Alchemy audiences will be introduced to the rousing folk rock of Raghu Dixit whose visit marks the beginning of an 18-month collaboration with the Southbank Centre and the British Council with the support of ‘Connections through Culture’. Dixit will culminate an initial research period with Southbank Centre artists-in-residence Gauri Sharma Tripathi and Bellowhead with a performance in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The work will develop into a piece with young people to be performed at Alchemy 2012 and subsequently in Mumbai.
British Council events at Alchemy
ALCHEMY DEBATE 1:
Crafting Cultures – FAIR TRADE ARTS
Friday 15 April | Level 5 Function Room at Royal Festival Hall, 6.30pm – 7.30pm, £8
Rapid economic growth in India has led cultural practitioners to develop alternative models of production. Who are the future leaders and patrons for the arts developing these sustainable models which put economic power in the hands of traditional artists, craftsmen and scholars? Panellists include: Rajeev Sethi, an artist and scenographer known for bringing contemporary relevance to the work of traditional craftsmen; fashion designer Sudhabrata Sadhu; Muzaffar Ali, filmmaker and activist; and Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director at the UK Crafts Council. Introduced by Southbank Centre’s Artistic Director, Jude Kelly.
THE RAGHU DIXIT PROJECT
Friday 15 April | Queen Elizabeth Hall, 8.00pm, £20 / £15 / £10
Raghu Dixit’s remarkable rise has been nothing short of spectacular. The former Bharatanatyam dancer’s rousing folk rock is not only the symbol of metropolitan India’s blossoming alternative music scene, but is also making waves internationally. Behind the scenes, Alchemy 2011 marks the beginning of an exciting two-year collaboration between Raghu Dixit and two Southbank Centre Resident Artists, dance artist Gauri Sharma Tripathi and British folk band Bellowhead, in collaboration with the British Council.
INDIAN FASHION
Monday 18 April | The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall, 6.30pm – 7.00pm
In a collaboration between Southbank Centre, the British Council and Blow PR, Alchemy presents some of the hottest fashion designers currently working in India with promoter and Radio 1 presenter Nihal DJ-ing live. This is a one off opportunity to see their latest collections. Designers include Sanjay Garg, Gaurav Jai Gupta, Prashant Verma and Morphe by Amit Aggarwal.
ALCHEMY DEBATE 2:
TRADITIONAL and/or MODERN?
Tuesday 19 April | Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.45pm
How can artists and thinkers work around the limiting and prescribed notions of the contrasting and opposing concepts of traditional and modern, East and West, technology and spirituality, urban and tribal? Speakers include internationally recognised author, scholar and experimental musician Amit Chaudhuri, singer and producer Shubha Mudgal, Attakkalari Artistic Director Jayachandran Palazhy, and playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar
ROUNDTABLE: The Alternative Story of Pakistan
Weds 20 April | Purcell Room at Southbank Centre, time tbc
For this discussion for an invited audience, Southbank Centre with the British Council brings together artists and cultural commentators to spend time beginning an exploration into the cultural scene both within and inspired by Pakistan. As part of Southbank Centre’s thinking for future Alchemy programming, this expert panel will debate how the complex issues of contemporary Pakistan with its unique political and social legacies can be mediated in the context of an arts festival. How can we build an alternative and more personal understanding of Pakistan and contribute to dialogue between Pakistan, the UK and the rest of the Indian subcontinent? Speakers include: Khaled Ahmed, an independent editor and academic; Hassan Nisar, Urdu writer and TV host and vocal representative of secular Pakistan; and Claire Chambers, expert in contemporary South Asian literature. This invite-only event will have an audience of cultural and politics students, representatives of arts organisations, artists and community leaders.
WORK IN PROGRESS
As part of the British Council’s Connections through Culture UK-India programme, these ‘Work in Progress’ sessions highlight collaborative projects by UK and Indian arts practitioners, with excerpts of the works and discussions with the creative teams offering a glimpse into the process of artists working in collaboration. The sessions will be chaired by Graham Sheffield, the British Council’s new Director of Arts.
Alchemic Work in Progress 1:
The Snow Queen & The Edge
Tuesday 19 April | Spirit Level at Royal Festival Hall, 6.30pm – 7.30pm
The Snow Queen is a new commission from the Unicorn Theatre by award-winning writer Anupama Chandrasekhar, who has previously written Free Outgoing and Disconnect for the Royal Court Theatre. Chandrasekhar will evoke the magic of the original Snow Queen tale and explore links with the varying colours, landscape and realities of contemporary India.
The Edge explores the relationship between humans and environment, working with stories of flood, borderland and the confluences of cultures. It is a collaboration between two exciting young companies, Transport (UK) and Ranan (India), with director Douglas Rintoul, choreographer Vikram Iyengar and artistic collaborator Victoria Long (Cape Farewell).
Alchemic Work in Progress 2:
Whale Song & A Moment of Mishearing
Thursday 21 April | Spirit Level at Royal Festival Hall, 6.30pm – 7.30pm, £4
Written and performed by Matthew Sharp and Sameer Rao, with words by Sir Andrew Motion, Whale Song is a unique collaboration, a long-distance love song, with cello and bansuri flute duetting in real time across the ocean of cyber-space between Mumbai and Deal in Kent. Co-produced by Deal Festival of Music and Arts and Q Theatre Productions. Indian writer, critic and musician Amit Chaudhuri and British producer Roger Elsgood also discuss the development of their forthcoming project A Moment of Mishearing, a touring theatrical production written by Chaudhuri based on his recent Between the Ears produced by Roger Elsgood for BBC Radio 3.
British Council Young Creative Entrepreneurs
Friday 15 – Monday 25 April | Royal Festival Hall foyers, 10am – 11pm, Admission Free
An exhibition of new Indian and Sri Lankan talent in fashion and design, this display showcases recent winners of the British Council’s Young Creative Entrepreneurs Award, a programme that recognises excellence in creative entrepreneurship and encourages dialogue between young entrepreneurs in the UK and overseas. The work of these South Asian designers reflects their concern for traditional techniques and crafts whilst projecting cutting-edge design using sustainable methods of production and materials.
Designers include: Subhabrata Sadhu, a textile designer who designs and develops collections of pure contemporary pashmina by working closely with traditional weavers in Kashmir; Sarthak Sengupta, who provides design solutions and forms of innovation incorporating the belief that designing beautiful and functional products and spaces should be combined with efforts to preserve local traditions; and Kasuni Rathnasuriya, who started KUR, a Sri Lankan brand of contemporary sustainable womenswear that values unique crafts such as traditional beeralu lace and new approaches such as recycling and redesigning.
Media Enquiries
Mike Findlay
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British Council
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E: mike.findlay@britishcouncil.org
Notes to Editors
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We work in over 100 countries worldwide to build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people. We work in the arts, education, English, science, sport and governance and last year we engaged face to face with 18.4 million people and reached 652 million. We are a non-political organisation which operates at arm’s length from government. Our total turnover in 2009/10 was £705 million, of which our grant-in-aid from the British government was £211 million. For every £1 of government grant we receive, we earn £2.50 from other sources. For more information, please visit: www.britishcouncil.org
Alchemy festival is Southbank Centre’s 11-day celebration of South Asian Culture from 15-25 April. Returning for a second year Alchemy will feature a wide-ranging programme of contemporary and traditional music and dance, debate, literature, film, craft and fashion. Alchemy will take over the Southbank Centre site – spilling across the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room, the Clore Ballroom, the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, various smaller rooms and the outdoor spaces around the site and filling the whole centre with vibrant music, dancing, music, art, food and performances. www.southbankcentre.co.uk/alchemy
Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery as well as The Saison Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. The Royal Festival Hall reopened in June 2007 following the major refurbishment of the hall and redevelopment of the surrounding area and facilities.
