Keekli Reporter, 1st June, 2016, Shimla
A new outlook towards visiting a village, if you can’t visit one in person, you can surely enjoy the ambience and the serenity through ShopArt’s Virtual Village. A venture to promote art by touching the base, the SA AS 2 project is organizing a festival from 7th to 14 June. The villagers have taken to fondly calling SA AS 2 their own ‘mela’. Come join us—villagers and artists — any time! Join us, eat with us, take a drink with us… and find out ho
w exciting the Indian art scene can be!
The exponential development from SA AS 1 to SA AS 2 includes an innovative and interactive net art platform Virtual Village, which can be visited virtually via www.shopartshop.com/village/intro.
ShopArt ArtShop (SA AS) is a unique conceptual arts project that brings emerging artists, alongside established artists, to a remote village for a month-long project ending in a festival of arts, culture, exhibitions, movies, fashion shows and drama.
ShopArt ArtShop is first and foremost about being able to present art beyond the confines of the contemporary city-based art scene. It is an opportunity for a group of artists to come together in a fully-funded month-long residency organized by the 4tables Project, where they are free to experiment in the unique environment of a village, explore new methods, and for emerging artists to receive the support and mentoring of seasoned practitioners.
These artists do not operate in isolation from the village and the villagers, but rather are encouraged to engage with ‘hosts’ as much as possible. New bonds and relationships are formed across many divides, giving everyone new thoughts and emotions about art and the village as a venue. The resulting art works reflect the ability of artists to transcend boundaries between rural-urban, traditional-modern, national-global.
The first edition of the project, in 2013, brought together 13 contemporary artists for the month-long arts event to Gunehar, causing quite a ‘buzz’ among art insiders; with the second edition now, we are well on our way to becoming a permanent fixture on the Indian arts calendar as an innovative conceptual arts event.
SA AS 2 is distinguished by the input of internationally renowned artists Ketna Patel and Puneet Kaushik as co-organizers, alongside Frank Schlichtmann, the initiator of the event. All have worked tirelessly to bring the latest edition to fruition.
Ketna and Puneet’s contribution, along with the efforts of numerous SA AS ‘supporters’ across the country, is bringing a high level of media attention and international interest to this exciting scene. A group of other excellent artists such as Mudita Bhandari, KM Lo, Gargi Chandola, Sheena Deviah, Amrit Vatsa and others compliment the great cast of artists with their contemporary disciplines and concepts.
