on top : Interview for « a small window » after Noisindia #2 at Matthieu Foss Gallery – Mumbai – India – 2011
The project – 2011
The Noisindia # project is born in India during winter 2011. I was there for an artistic residency commissioned by the Institut Français (villa médicis hors les murs). A three months stay to prepare an musical tragedy based on the ship recycling yards of Alang and more generaly around the creation/usage/destructivity cycle. Sounds, noises, videos I shot in India are parts of the project, like a noise print. This piece became from an experimental feed for the final musical tragedy work (actually in preparation), a fully individual piece, but in constant motion. The composition, the video editing, even the show type are evolving at each concerts.
KHOJ – Internationnal artists association
many times, even before experimenting things, we might have the feeling of being on the right way. And it was the case when I was calling for the first time miss Andi – co-curator at khoj – at the beginning of my residency in February 2011. I had the idea to do an informal presentation of my work on Alang (ship-breaking yards). Pooja Sood – director of khoj – listened to me speaking about the project with attention and finally said yes, lets go for this noise adventure. I have to say that such reactivity, part of the people programing and prospecting at the origins of artistic contemporary projects is absolutely fundamental. And here we can note a big difference between the Indian professional behaviour and the European one. One is based on a human relation between an artist and his potential producer, second is generally based on interminable canvassings on practicability. So after this very refreshing entrevue, I starded my residency with in mind the possibility of showing and improving my work.
The Gujarat and Maharashtra adventures (shortly)
Things that have followed has been quite difficult, specially the stay in Gujarat. Despite the fact that I had very good friends and contacts like Sara Keller, Ilesh Vyas and Philippe Martin – the powerfull and dynamic director of the french alliance française of Ahmedabad – entering and visiting the recycling yards has been an exhausting experience. Things are always like that when people ( actually the shipbreaking yards owners) decide to put walls between the reality and the world sight. But fortunately I experienced with Ilesh Vyas the same intelligence and reactivity that I met one month earlier with the Khoj team and was given to me the posibility of a first musical and field recording presentation based on the first visits of the Ship yards. Noisindia #1 has been succesfully presented in baroda in March 2011. It was basically only sounds projection, with a screen copy of my desktop, showing a max/msp patch running.
Matthieu Foss who own a contemporary photographic gallery in Mumbay offers me the second opportunity to improve this work in progress by showing it in a very interesting manner for a photographic place, in a total dark environment with the public nicely disposed on matress.
Finally Noisindia #3 was presented under the small dome of Khoj, in april 2011 with the designer and guitar player Andy Naorem, and for the first time with an edited video of all the footage caught during my Indian stay.
But the KHOJ’s collaboration did not stop at this informal but warm presentation, before I lived India, Pooja Sood had the idea to organized a more consequent residency in january 2012, to continue the work on Noisindia with the designer and musician Andy Naorem.
India Art Fair – Khojlive 12, Bangla Desh, NID sound design masterclass- 2012
That invitation from Khoj, with the support of Institut Français in New Delhi for coming back in India was for me very nice. First, we (Andy and me) had the possibility to work in a Khoj studio with quite good sounds conditions during fifteen days. Meeting other present artists like Dhanya Pilo (vj decoy), Ottavia Castellina (photographer) and Samir Parker (architect-designer) was great. Finally presenting a Noisindia #5 (#4 was in Poland- Wroclaw) in the Blue Frog New Delhi was something exciting even if we had some difficulties with the video staff there. Anyway the sound was really good and Andy and me had really a lot of fun playing for the (trendy) public of the India Art Fair 2012. I have to say that Khoj has a unique style for giving to artists a very comprehensive, simple and peacefull environment. Well, that’s my felling, I love this place.
# 6 has been presented in a short version in French Embassy garden , invited by Institut Français.
My stay in Chittagong -Bangladesh -was much harder (well, a little bit less glamourous). One of my goal was to go back to the place where the project was born, 23 years earlier in the ship recycling yards of Chittagong. Visiting the yards was as difficult as in Alang, however this time I had a chance at least to go in with a camera and a sound recorder with the great help of my local friend (and great man) Shahin – from YPSA. Again the walls to mask the human depravations, the pains, the experience of the human sufferings linked to the destroyed and destroying machines …heavy metal hell !
Beeing back to Gujarat after one year to work again with Philippe Martin was a great chance. Philippe introduces me to Sekhar Mukherjee – director of animation film departement. Together we have imagined a session of sound design class with the students. The idea was to build an entire sound project from beginning to end. After this great week in the NID, Noisindia #7 was presented in the auditorium.
# 8 was played in Baroda with vocalist Khyati Vyas and tabla player Yash Joshi, a nice quadraphonic concert in a park
list of Noisindia shows at this day :
#1 Baroda University, India, Mars 2011, laptop solo
#2 Mumbai, Matthieu Foss Gallery,Mars 2011-India, concert dans le noir
#3 New Delhi, Khoj – international artist association (avril2011) – India
#4 Wroclaw, Survival Festival, Pologne, Juin 2011, laptop, vidéo
#5 New Delhi, KHOJlive12 – India Art Fair (jan 2012) – India
#6 Institut Français-New Delhi (janv 2012) – India
#7 NID – National Institute of Design (Fev 2012) India
#8 Baroda – (Fev 2012) India
#9 Festival Les Détours de Babel – Grenoble – Installation
#10 Planétarium de Poitiers – (short version)
#11 Festival Les Détours de Babel – Live – Film + Laptop
#12 Apo33, Nantes (mai 2012) – France
#13 Reims, Festival Elektricity – 25 septembre 2012 -France
#14 Le Générateur – Le Kremlin Bicêtre – 20 Octobre 2012 – France
#15 Electric Spring Festival – Huddersfield – 25 février 2013 – Angleterre
#16 Festival Court-Toujours – Thionville – Septembre 2013
#17 Performance privé (chez le compositeur)
#18 Festival tandem – Nevers – février 2014
#19 Maison de la Poésie – Paris – mars 2014
#20 Bibliothèque Faidherbe – Paris
#21 Festival Court-Toujours Metz – 2014
#22 Festival Musiques Démesurées, Clermont-Ferrand – 2014
# Casablanca – Maroco (annullé, reporté en 2017)
#23 Instants Sonores – Mende – France 2015
#24-25 Montréal – Canada – 2015
#26 Dijon – Festival Nuits D’orient – 2016