Annual report 2003-2004 - India Foundation for the Arts

[Pala] would narrate a story at thedrop of a hat . . . going completelyoff the mark, diverging intounwanted details, losing track offrom where he started. He told thesame story with equal passion againand again. In each episode hewould find a rationale for histhoughts and beliefs and the constantquestioning that went on in hismind. He possessed a naturalinstinct for philosophical inquiry,despite being unable to read orwrite and being economicallyunstable. He knew no other wayof living.Gurvinder SinghStills from his film ‘Pala’ resulting from his documentationof the Sufi and bhakti music of the Punjab.short filmmaking in India. Another interestingdevelopment is the merging of arts practice andscholarship in projects undertaken by artists. Wehave supported artists earlier to undertakeresearch located in their own fields, but thenewly-funded projects demonstrate a strongerlink between research interests and arts practice.For example, designer Sumant Jayakrishnanand anthropologist Janaki Abraham have beensupported to research the toddy-tapping Thiyyacommunity of Kerala, which will result in anexhibition on collective memory, identity andself-representation. This is an unusual exampleof how scholarly research can be intertwinedwith artistic practice towards an outcome thathas relevance for both fields. A differentinstance of such merging appears in the projectbeing undertaken by an urban folk singer andsongwriter, who is documenting the repertoire ofbiraha (songs of separation) in the folk music of7