Delhi to host India's first int'l live arts fest

The first international live arts festival in India will be held in the capital March 25-30 as part of the 10th year celebrations of Khoj International Artists Association.

Pooja Sood, director of Khoj, said that besides celebrating the association's 10th year, the festival will aim to promote the concept of live arts or performing arts in India.

"An eclectic mix of about 25 performance artists from all around the globe - working across a range of live art practices like theatre, dance, installation and photography - will define and redefine the genre of performance art in the festival," Sood told IANS in an e-mail interview.

"A group of curators from the Live Arts Development Agency and independent critics will also give presentations and workshops that will contribute to the debate and discussion around the genre," she said.

Live Art is an umbrella term encompassing a range of performances, performative and time-based practices that are unrestricted by art form boundaries.

The term came into usage in Britain in the mid-1980s. Essentially it refers to fields of artistic practice that are time-based but do not fall into those already strong genres of theatre, dance and performance art - for example, an artist making an art piece in front of his audience is live art.

The festival will see artists from India as well as Germany, Switzerland, France, Nepal, Pakistan and the Netherlands among other countries.

"During the festival, the mornings will basically focus on workshops and discussions, afternoons will have artists, musicians and poets performing at the Alliance Francaise gallery and evenings will see artists performing in various other art galleries across the city like the Palette Art Gallery, Anant Art Gallery and Gallery Espace," Sood said.