For the 2016 edition of the India Art Fair Speakers’ Forum, Asia Art Archive presents a series of two panel discussions with leading experts and practitioners from various fields to consider key shifts in the field of art today. 

Session One | Convergent Boundaries: Where Art and Literature Meet
Fri, 29 Jan 2016 | 11:30am–12:30pm
As boundaries between different art forms and practices are becoming increasingly blurred, this panel invites two cultural figures that have worked at the crossroads of multiple disciplines for several decades. Moderated by art critic and curator Gayatri Sinha, renowned artist and poet Gulammohammed Sheikh and poet and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar share their experiences of working in the creative field, their perception of the changing notion of being an artist over the decades, and the inspiration they draw from literatures across cultures.


Session Two | Between Tragedy & Farce: Takes on the Performance Archive
Sat, 30 Jan 2016 | 11:30am–12:30pm
Performance art has witnessed radical shifts in the 21st century with its high velocity of capture and relay, transforming what it means to perform (or witness) an action ‘live’. Moderated by dramaturge and culture theorist Rustom Bharucha, this panel gathers prominent international artists Nikhil Chopra and Ray Langenbach to address their most pressing concerns for contemporary performance art. The panelists will share the strategies they use to address: what are the contours of the body and of events in performance art in a hyper-mediatised world? What are the social dimensions of performance art today? With its increased institutionalisation in the field of art, what is the future of a performance art archive?

Speakers
Javed Akhtar: poet, lyricist, and scriptwriter
Rustom Bharucha: Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Nikhil Chopra: performance artist
William Ray Langenbach: performance artist; Professor of Live Art and Performance Studies, University of the Arts, Helsinki
Gulammohammed Sheikh: artist and poet
Gayatri Sinha: art editor, critic, and curator