30 years of ASEAN-India ties celebrated through art camp at Taj Aravali resort, Udaipur
The 9-day camp included artists from India and ASEAN countries- Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam was held at the sylvan backdrop of Aravalli ranges in Taj Aravali resort, Udaipur.
With the objective to foster congenial relationship, the Ministry of External Affairs in collaboration with Seher, recently organized the second edition of the ASEAN-India Artists’ camp to celebrate 30 years of ASEAN-India dialogue relations in Udaipur recently.
The location was in complete harmony with the artwork created by the artists who had gathered from several parts of ASEAN countries including eleven renowned artists from India who have worked extensively in public spaces.
The art pieces produced during the camp were exhibited at the closing ceremony attended by the Minister of State, Ministry of External Affairs Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, as the chief guest. The camp ended on a high note with an exhibition of artworks and a traditional dance performance by eminent Kathak and Odissi dancer Parwati Dutta and promising Sattriya dancer Anwesa Mahanta.
The Ministry was very keen in having people to people contact. Ministries of various ASEAN countries selected one artist each to represent their creative community and as host nation India has eleven artists here so we have twenty artists in total and they work in public space in a community.
With impressive detailing, the crab, accompanied by a shoal of fish, takes up most of the canvas which is dominated by a Gond tree. “I am trying to take the traditional art forward by giving it a contemporary touch. I try to make the details more minute,” says the Japanese Shyam from Bhopal, whose father Janggarh Singh Shyam was one of the pioneers who attracted Gond art globally.
26-year-old Vietnamese artist Flinh created the serene shades of blue on a canvas made of crumpled paper, its protagonists being the moon and the ocean manifesting dialogue between past and present, old and new.
Chhattisgarh-based Yogendra Tripathi’s abstract canvas, on the other hand, invites interpretation and reinterpretation: a brownish tone, with patches of lighter shadow, an amorphous shape that might have been the sun, with hills outlined in black.
During their stay in Udaipur, the participants were familiarised with the works of renowned Indian artists and different art forms of the country.
The first edition of the artists’ camp was organised in 2017 as part of the 25th-anniversary celebration of ASEAN-India dialogue relations, leading up to the main ASEAN India Summit in 2018.
