as part of CROSS Festival 2024

Digital India is a digital installation that has as its central theme traditional Indian dance and the work of the Attakkalari Dance Company of Bangalore.
As part of the CRISOL – creative processes project, the videomaker Federico Torre, accompanied by Antonella Cirigliano (CROSS), followed the rehearsals and the production of 4 pieces by the historic Indian company that uses Bharatanatyam, Kalaripayattu and Kathakali as a study basis for the creation of highly suggestive contemporary works with a unique dreamlike visual potential. Mixing videos, lights, costumes and stage props, Attakkalari revisits its culture making it current.

The video installation also features a rich visual documentation through interviews and the introduction of the Nagarika project, directed by Jayachandran Palazhy, which constitutes a digital archive of the history of the movement in India and its religious and ritual implications.

These are the four pieces that are part of the video installation:

Jeeva Pravaaha is a performance that reflects on the experiences of migrants during India’s sudden closure due to COVID-19. Set among the architectural wonders of southern India, it explores how these structures influenced life rituals and transformed the concept of home from a refuge to a place of isolation and tension. Through a mixture of heritage, memories and contemporary cityscapes, the performance celebrates the individual freedom and inner spirituality of wandering devotees. With digital images created by artist Kunihiko Matsuo and almost obsessive music by M.D. Pallavi and Bindhu Malini, Jeeva Pravaaha offers a profound reflection on the human condition, and particularly migrants, during crisis situations.

Soul of the Soil is a piece choreographed by the artistic director Jayachandran Palazhy and is part of the AadhaaraChakra production. The performers dressed in typical village attires reminiscent of yesteryears moves to a Tamil folk song composed and sung by renowned folk musician Shri Kupuswamy. The work reflects the dichotomy of our lives in which tradition and modernity coexist. In today’s urban world where technology dominates our lives, the song transports us to another time and place, perhaps to a more idyllic existence.

Nava Durga is a performance piece created during the COVID lockdown period, commissioned by the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP). The work is inspired by images of the powerful and fierce Goddess Durga created by 9 contemporary women painters and uses original music created by Idappally Ajit Kumar. This dance explores the conditions of Indian women today and the challenges they face, offering an allegorical interpretation of women’s struggle against injustice, gender bias, and social discrimination, using Durga’s victories against evil as inspiration.

Vanna Vativukal is a choreography commissioned as the final piece of the National Bridal Couture Fashion week in Delhi becoming the centerpiece of the event. The piece begins with an exploration of the masculine and feminine energies that exist within us and explores the playful nature of the courtship period. The choreography moves through images of courtship, union and sharing, celebrating sensuality by invoking images of rites of passage, rituals and elements such as water, to music specially composed by MIDIval Punditz.

Digital India is a project by CROSS Project, Attakkalari Centre for Movements Arts, Fondazione Fabbrica Europa within the CRISOL- creative processes project.
In collaboration with NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano

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