Arts Research

Shruti Ghosh


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will investigate the cultural memory of exile and identity formation in Chhota Lucknow, situated in Metiaburuz, Kolkata. It will attempt to understand the narratives of displacement of a community that was the custodian of the Nawabi culture of Lucknow in Kolkata, and that underwent systematic marginalisation over several decades while clinging on to the fading cultural memory of Lucknow and Wajid Ali Shah. The outcomes of this project will be a multimedia exhibition, audiovisual documentation, a lecture demonstration and an essay. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final reports will be documentation from the multimedia exhibition and lecture demonstration, audiovisual documentation, and the essay. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, premiere of the exhibition, production, and documentation.

V Jayashree


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will examine the role of illustrations in a variety of Tamil magazines in the second half of the 20th century. It will seek to understand how the ascription of supplementary nature of illustrations to fictional narratives was understood and negotiated in the public sphere. The outcomes of this project will be an open-source digital repository and a monograph. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with reports, will be a link to and a sample from the digital repository and the monograph. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, archive fees and purchase of equipment.

Basil Islam SPC


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will study the Muslim community’s spatial formations and sensorial practices in Kayalpattinam, a southern coastal town in Tamil Nadu. It will examine how various traditions negotiate the influx of modernity in different socio-religious contexts in a Muslim-majority district. The outcomes of this project will be an essay, audiovisual documentation, and a catalogue of ritual performances and built forms. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with final reports, will be an essay, audiovisual documentation, and a catalogue of ritual performances and built forms. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, premier of exhibition, documentation, hire of equipment, archive fees, library fee, printing, purchase of books, stationery, and materials.

S Jayakrishnan


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will create a multimedia installation using the forgotten subaltern literary and music genre Gujili Paatu of Madras from the early 20th century, and classical Sangam literature. Drawing from the real-life love stories of five women reported in newspapers, government reports, interviews, and journals, the project will examine the underlying connections among Sangam literature, Gujili Paatu and contemporary literary and artistic expressions to trace the continuum of the theme of love in Tamil cultural traditions. The outcome of this project will be a multimedia installation. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with final reports, will be a copy of the installation as an experimental film. Project funds will pay for contract fees, production, travel and living, hire of equipment, and purchase of books.

Suryanandini Narain


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will examine female agency in the visual production of everyday domestic objects in middle-class, urban India. The key figure of the project is the middle-class, educated ‘housewife’ or ‘homemaker’ who is not in full-time employment outside of the home but invests her skills within the domestic sphere of the DDA flats, a standard form of housing provided by the government for its residents across the city of Delhi. The outcomes of this project will be a monograph and audiovisual documentation from the field. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final reports will be the monograph and audiovisual documentation. Project funds will pay for contract fees, audiovisual documentation, travel and living, and internet fees.

Sita Reddy


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA, which will re-examine Hyderabad’s public museums and archives as social institutions at a time when the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated into two states, with Hyderabad as the capital of both from 2014-2024. Investigating this particular decade (in which the collections too are being bifurcated), the project will attempt a new collective biography of these institutions that will address their origins, collection records and ownership dilemmas over conflicting histories and contested objects and artefacts. The outcomes of this project will be a symposium and a series of museum podcasts. The Project Coordinators’ deliverables to IFA with the final report will be audiovisual documentation of the symposium proceedings and copies of the podcasts. Project funds will pay for contract fees and the symposium.

Ronidkumar Chingangbam


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA, which will study the sociopolitical and cultural history of Manipur between the 1960s and 1970s through the work of a group of poets known as the ‘Angry Poets of Manipur’. The project will attempt to understand poverty, unemployment and corruption during this period through their writing and through detailed interviews with them. The outcome of this project will be a set of audiovisual songs based on the poetry and interviews. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be a set of audiovisual songs and documentation of the interviews from the field. Project funds will pay for contract fees, equipment hire, books and stationery, and travel.

Anuj Malhotra


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA, which will create an interactive map of the alternative history of film as told by a location scout in Bombay in the 1970s. By situating itself along historical and present labour routes in the city, it will attempt to organise and record the myriad subcultures of the cinema as they exist in the city. The outcome of this project will be a virtual interactive map. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be a copy of the map, a link to the virtual map online and audiovisual documentation from the field. Project funds will pay for travel and living, contract fees, production, books and library and printing and stationery.

Savitha Suresh Babu


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA, which will investigate the ways in which youth from marginalised caste groups navigate the contemporary Kannada theatre space, by examining the conflicts they grapple with to claim their cultural legacies. The project will explore the layered cultural hegemonies of Kannada theatre, the possibilities of imagining counter-cultural aesthetics, and how gender affects these negotiations. The outcomes of this project will be a theatre production, a workshop, an essay in Kannada and English and an online oral archive of interviews from the field. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be audiovisual documentation of the workshop and theatre production, an essay, and a link to the online archive. Project funds will pay for professional fees, production and travel and living.

Hemachandran Karah


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA, which will study the non-dominant Tamil narrative traditions that are replete with instances of disfigurements, associated with two deities, Sudalai Madan and Madurai Veeran. It will examine aesthetic features of embodiment and shape contained in these narratives, while documenting the visual, oral, ritual and performative accounts in accessible formats. A core objective of this project is to study disability access cultures in relation to the performance and reception of these narrative traditions. The outcomes of this project will be manuscript for a book, pedagogical videos, and a haptic exhibition. The Principal Investigator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the manuscript for the book, pedagogical videos, and audiovisual documentation from the exhibition. Project funds will pay for professional fee, honorarium, travel and living, and printing and stationery.

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