A decade ago, Paramita Saha — curator-director of Detritus, worked on a project that posed the question, ‘How can art be a tool and a starting point for dialogue around the environment?’ That became the force behind Saha’s career. Detritus — a dance performance directed by Saha that proposes a lightness of being and living in a world that is overburdened by what we consume and discard — travels to Bengaluru for its city debut after eleven shows in Delhi and Kolkata.The multi-format piece is choreographed by Surjit Nongmeikapam and Prashant More, with dramaturgy by Diya Naidu and music by Karshni Nair. We catch up with Paramita Saha to find out everything you need to know about their upcoming event.
What can be expected in your upcoming event?
Expect a deeply immersive and intimate experience. It is a performance that engages the audience closely in its flow and takes them along on a journey.
What is the concept/idea behind Detritus?
Climate change and the devastation of our natural resources, an anthropocentric approach to life, the endlessly perpetuating problem of waste and our general apathy towards the conservation of resources or converting linear economies to circular has tipped us over the edge of disaster. Over the years and internationally we have seen that creative advocacy in this field has been most effective to create impact and action among communities. So, our objective in making this piece is manifold: building a community of artiste change makers committed to climate action. We also want to create a high-quality performance, product of collaborative and creative engagement across the artist community in India.
As Detritus is looked at as an art form to bring reforms/changes in an ecosystem, how is it curated in a way that influences the audience?
The performance questions through the poetic body, object, and sound metaphors: our consumption patterns, the altered human body, and natural landscapes in the wake of contamination by plastic and other waste, and who should now take responsibility for our collective impact on our environment.
Could you tell us more?
Detritus is traditionally organic debris that is typically formed through processes of decomposition and decay, assimilating back into the ecosystem. Detritus however also indicates waste, remnants, and debris of human activity — a mass accumulated from objects that we did not need in the first place or were not able to find enough usage for — objects that were never meant to be absorbed back into the system. The traditional detritus is now altered into an ever-expanding mountain of waste burning in toxic flames, a breeding ground of disease and infection, where a population of humans and animals scavenge to survive, a Frankenstein of our making that we have lost control over. Through the 40-minute piece, we work with exploration of the problem and the proliferation of the problem into a monster — Detritus — that looms large over mankind, contaminates and disrupts all natural processes of regrowth and regermination. Hope is not a strategy but community action is. The audience is invited into the piece at a critical point, as stakeholders in this problem and therefore eventually and hopefully a part of its solution.
Could you tell me about how you select artists? Are there any special skill sets required to present this art form?
The curation of the choreographers, dramaturge and music composer was based on the particular qualities of their work, their concerns for the environment and their ability to co-imagine a performance piece that would move the audience to reflect on the choices they make every day. The dancers were chosen through a process of auditioning and were then engaged through a hybrid process of working with the theme. We have worked with a mix of backgrounds for the dancers — we have classical, contemporary and whacking training in their bodies.
The piece has been performed sixteen times all over India. Are there any changes you brought in the production during this time?
The piece has developed organically. The basic design has not been altered but the movement qualities have changed with time as the dancers have responded to the alterations in their environment. We have also worked on 4-member and 3-member versions of the piece.
When is the next event?
We are next up for some performances in various universities of Kolkata reaching out to young people to influence their minds in the right way.
INR 399. October 6. 7 pm. At Goethe Institut, Indiranagar.
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