The two days long workshop that kicked of on September 23 in the premises of Siddhartha Art Gallery in Baber Mahal Revisited has ten national artists Govinda, Kapil Mani Dixit, Sunita Rana, Sudarshan Rana, Lal Kaji Lama, Bidhata K.C, Ashu Ram Khaiju, Mukesh Shrestha, N.B Gurung and Shyam Sundhat Yadaband sharing ideas and working together with two international artists Dr Jacquiline Taylor Basken and Magdalena Maria Drwiega. Artists will exchange ideas before and after the workshop, which will continue today as well.
The international participants of the workshop, Jordan based American artist Dr Jacquiline and UK based Polish artist Magdalena are friends to Govinda. Jacquiline a doctorate in Arts from Oxford University terms her meeting with Govinda as ‘cosmically arranged’. Both of them are interested in symbols of cloud. Govinda has been painting clouds for a while now; Jacquline shares a similar interest. She did her thesis in the symbols of clouds in different cultures such as paganism and Greek. “Clouds are spiritual symbol of peace and harmony,” she explained. And Magdalena is university friend of Govinda.
Graduate from University of Arts in London, Govinda feels the urgent need of interaction between artists to uplift the state’s art scene. “It’s not that we don’t have good artists. But the culture of waiting for others help and the attitude of finding oneself superior to others have stagnated our art landscape,” adds Govinda.
According to him, unlike neighboring countries such as Bangladesh and India, Nepal has not been able to flourish in art scene. “Despite the political situation those countries are going through, the artists there have not stopped themselves from their artistic venture,” Govinda cites an example, “Notwithstanding the political, economical and social background, Bangladeshi artists come together and work when it comes to art. Thus they have been able to prove themselves in international arena as well. But we lack that camaraderie here.”
It is not the first time that Govinda has taken an initiation to conduct such exchange programs. Previously he conducted workshops in collaboration with Bangladeshi artists where nine of them had visited Nepal and consecutively 6 Nepali artists traveled to Bangladesh for the workshops and art exhibitions.
Process to Move is also an opportunity for national artists to interact with international artists and simultaneously with local artists. Bidhata K.C, a contemporary to Govinda and also one of the participating artists of the workshop believes such workshops help artists to update about the latest activities in art and learn and share ideas. She is of the view that due to lack of artistic environment in the country, art scene is lazed. “Because the artist themselves has to act as an organizer, financier and event coordinator of their exhibitions, so it is quite discouraging,” adds Bidhata, who has been part of the previous workshops conducted by Govinda.
All the art works are and will be based on the interaction between the participating artists. And will be exhibited at Siddhartha Art Gallery after Dashain holidays.
“There is no need to follow a certain medium or theme to work upon,” informs Govinda. Bidhata is continuing her leaf theme in a little different manner while Jacquiline is bringing her few days experience of Nepal on the canvases. Magdalena is harmonizing different shapes and forms.
Through workshops like ‘Process to Move’ the participating artists are determined to set a culture of interactions between the local and their international counterparts to perfect their presentation skills and explore their creativity.
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