Barbil Art Project - Redefining Space 

November 25 - December 1, 2012 I Arya Colony, Barbil, Keonjhar, Odisha and Utsha Foundation for Contemporary Art, VR-39, Bhubaneswar, Odisha

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Artists: Aishwaryan K, Arvind Singh, Haraprasad Tripathy, Jagannath Panda, Josh P.S, Nityananda Ojha, P. Bujinga Rao, Ramakanta Samantaray, Satyabhama Majhi, Shweta P. Bhattad, Sujit Mallik and Surya Singh

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“Redefining an existing mining space through art," was an exciting idea that expanded beyond the realm of 'white cubes' to include the larger spectrum of life through shared engagement of professional artists and local folk.

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Besides a diverse group of contemporary artists, there were local traditional artists namely Abhimanyu Sahu and Gananath Sahu, Saraswati Das, Jayant Kumar Behera, Ashok Behera and Duryodhan Behera, working in mediums like terracotta, papier-mâché and bamboo respectively.The works of this mixed bag of artists was accompanied by various cultural activities including national award winner Maguni Kunwar's performance of puppet dance, Bagh Nata (Tiger dance) by Padmashree Bhagaban Sahu, Odissi by Deepak Kar, Odissi and Jhumar by students from Arya Colony of Arya Group of companies. Satyabhama Majhi's workshop in collaboration with children of Arya Colony added another flavour to the ambience by creating various forms of toy making and multiple designs in paper-mâché and terracotta.

During the workshop participants kept documenting the material and cultural impression of the locality through the multilayered interaction with people to put forward the traditional regional practices in the contemporary world. There were also presentations, slideshows and talks followed by cultural programmes in the vicinity every night.

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The week-long workshop was capped by a felicitation programme at Utsha Foundation at Bhubaneswar on December 5, 2012.