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follow us during our three month project in Assam & Nagaland:
Become a project partner!
Artefacting’s projects are made up of an international group of people who are
passionate about making a contribution to social change and have created a global
platform with an international audience.
Artefacting is a nonprofit art organization without sufficient funds to pay artist
stipends or to reimburse general project costs like airfares or housing to it’s participating artists.
Therefore, Artefacting is still looking for Project partners to help enable us to
- cover costs related to the Artist Residency in Northeast India,
- do a touring exhibition of the Global Village2012 project,
- create a full lenght feature project documentary.
Sponsorship & Financing
All financial support is tax-deductible though our fiscal-sponsor the Brooklyn Arts Council which gives the project non-profit status. Artefacting aims to give our project sponsors high-levels of visibility online, in our films and in a variety of cultural spaces in which we will occupy. To contribute or to learn more click here
Project Partners
The Akas of the Northeast, known for their festive colorful dances
Global Village2012
An International Art Ecology Residency in Assam & Nagaland
Global Village2012 is a three-month operation that will start on March 1, 2012 and will be based out of the city of Guwahati in Northeastern India. Here a diverse collaborative of local artists from the states of Nagaland, Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya will mix with artists from Europe, America, and Asia to work together creatively towards common objectives and education.
An international traveling exhibition & feature film will intimately deliver these experiences and Artefacts to viewers across India and abroad through curated exhibits in museums, galleries and theatres.
Global Village2012II Los Angeles
In the fall of 2012, Global Village2012 will move to Los Angeles, USA. Here, Artefacting will look to compare and connect Assam & Nagaland to individuals that live in a market-based culture and are searching for something more mythological and spiritual. By connecting these seemingly polar opposite communities, this project seeks to portray the unity of the Global Village in the year 2012. More info on the Los Angeles project will follow later
Modern heritage in downtown Los Angeles with the Wall Disney Concert Hall. (photo Arne de Knegt)
INTRO: Peril & Wealth in Northeast India
The Naga people of the Northeast. A people with a culture preserved over thousands of years, still living at one with the ancestors and spirits that inhabit their jungles. Ethnically diverse, the Nagas are made up of 18 major tribes and bound by a heritage of myth, folklore and magic that firmly roots them in the environment that sustains them. They pray, dance and make sacrifices for the fertility of their fields and acknowledge the ancient forces of the earth, sky, water, wind and stars. They live in a pristine green India; one of the world’s wettest regions and a place with almost every climatic zone on earth aside from desert.
Northeastern India
Assam, known widely as the world’s largest tea producer, is experiencing rapid urbanization with some daring to place the capital city Guwahati in the world’s top ten most rapidly developing. With this expansion is coming buildings and slums that are encroaching on the hills and water bodies, giving way to an escalating imbalance in the eco-system via erosion and degradation. Flash flooding is on the rise and some worry that without a proactive discourse, the situation may become irredeemable. As Guwahati and other Northeast cities sprawl their urban tentacles further into the wild, an open and dynamic engagement of these issues by artists, architects, communities and tribes is in order to create a proactive and multi-disciplinary approach to this challenge.
With this urbanization have also come pervasive Western lifestyles and cultures that are challenging the very essence of the Naga people. Their age-old traditions are being endangered and they are resisting losing their identity. But increased migration to the city is seeing the next generation further distant from their roots. They face a growing challenge to learn and maintain their heritage in a more contemporary context and way of life.
Welcome to Global Village 2012
In this new project, Artefacting will take this new generation - a generation of young dancers, folk musicians, filmmakers and artists - back to their roots to document and reconnect to their villages. Elders will be interviewed, songs and dances archived and mythology reconstructed through film and photography. Totems and tribal art will inspire and give birth to contemporary translation; paintings, sculptures and public art that can carry forth heritage and Naga stories. In real time the experience of this intercultural creation will bridge divides through discourse, camaraderie and public participation. And together as a dynamic story, the Artefacts of Global Village 2012 will provide viewers access to a compelling and cultural archive that aims at reconnecting viewers to the magic of the Nagas human ecology.
Photo left: Although the Naga people do not consider the sun and moon to be the highest gods, their costumes reveal the most striking solar and lunar symbolism. Mao-nagas performing the cosmic dance wear head-dresses resembling the rays of the rising sun. Photo right: “Kimas” posted in front of a longhouse remind visitors of its deceased owners
Angami-Nagas from the village of Tengima in their lavish costumes. Their head-dresses resembling the sun are so heavy they must be held in front by ropes.
Project background info
During the project’s three month time span - from March 1 - May 31 - a group of local and international artists will work together on a variety of projects aiming to document the region’s unique diversity - learning and teaching about issues surrounding rapid urbanization, ecology and cultural heritage. Interested in being a part of this unique project? Artefacting has positions available! Contact the team for for more info
A “Shattra”, bamboo totem erected by the Meitheis people to commemorate the sylvan deities, or a deceased relative.
Urbanization
Video: with rapid population growth - and over 50% of the world population now living in cities - pressure is building up in urban areas worldwide. Besides the fact that the impacts of urbanization in developing countries is creating urban poverty like poor housing, sanitation, lack of access to public transport, education, water etc., the lack of controlled urban growth is also putting pressure on the environment. Besides a lack of lleviation projects that cover sanitation and clean water, housing and overcoming caste prejudice, rapid urban growth is also contributing to environmental disasters like landslides and flooding because hillsides are being cleared of vegetation and natural water catchment areas like river beds are being used for urban expansion.
Ecology
Video: the Assam Government sounds alert across the state after flooded Brahmaputra River and its tributaries breach embankments and submerged roads and houses in Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Sonitpur districts, affecting around 250.000 people.
Heritage
Video: Tribal dance of the Garo tribe of Meghalaya
The Garos are tribal people in Meghalaya, India and neighboring areas of Bangladesh, who call themselves Achik Mande (literally “hill people,” from a chik “hill” + mande “people”) or simply Achik or Mande. They are the second-largest tribe in Meghalaya after the Khasi and comprise about a third of the local population. These are one of the few remaining matrilineal societies in the world which means that the individuals take their clan titles from their mothers. Sons leave the parents’ house at puberty, and are trained in the village bachelor dormitory (nokpante). After getting married, the man lives in his wife’s house. While property of Garo’s is owned by the women, the men folk govern the society and domestic affairs and manage the property.
Working Structure
Global Village 2012’s operation will be based out of a rustic home in the City of Guwahati. Here a diverse collaborative of local artists from Nagaland, Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya will mix with artists from Europe, America, and Asia to work together creatively towards common objectives and education. Artist’s activities will branch out into villages and cities throughout the region, engaging a handful of communities. With the assistance of Artefacting leaders and key partners, relationships with communities will spurn effective working environments that can lead to meaningful and profound collaborative work. The team’s diverse assets, backgrounds, abilities and networks will give a capacity to allow small projects to materialize into events of cultural and community significance; a festival, the creation of land art, a photo shoot, film production or a deep immersion & recording of a cultural tradition.
Operations & Production
Artefacting’s Global Village 2012 will function through three interconnected consecutive phases
Month 1: Global Village 2012 takes shape as resident artists unite with one another, observe, learn, and engage the people and communities of their specific working environments.
Month 2: Compelling projects will coalesce as residents identify cultural context and begin producing their documentation/creation whether it be the documentation of mythology, conceptualization of land art, interviewing, music archiving, or planning of a festival.
Month 3: Remaining production, editing and curating will finalize creative content, whether it be photography, artwork, film, or documentation. This phase will also see the project sealed through the completion of the final feature-length film on Artefacting’s Global Village 2012.
Mission Objectives
• Provide local & international officials and organizations with new perspective and a multi-disciplinary approach to the challenges posed by rapid urbanization in the Northeast
• Create intimate environmental education and awareness by connecting widespread audiences with the human ecological practices, customs and beliefs of the Naga people
• Serve as a platform to give resonance and voice to marginalized and threatened cultural practice and people
• Serve as an archive and platform for traditional, contemporary and experimental forms of visual and performing art
• Bolster & empower communities and individuals by raising their esteem and notions of self determination
• Cultivate cross-cultural dialogue and exchange to bridge differences, political division and disciplines
Exhibitions
An international traveling exhibition & feature film will intimately deliver these experiences and Artefacts to viewers across India and abroad through curated exhibits in museums, galleries and theatres.
Directly following the residency in India’s Northeast, the team’s Artefacts will be exhibited at GRID2012, this year’s edition of the Amsterdam Photo Biennial. Additionally, Artefacting plans on exhibiting in India and New York City and is open to additional locations and venues.
The final film will be screened as part of 2013 New York Indian Film Festival organized by our partner the Indo-American Arts Council
