Organized by the
National Institute of Advanced Studies, Friends of Hampi and Karnataka
Chitrakala Parishat (Bangalore), an exhibition titled 'Vijayanagara: Splendour
in ruins' of rare and historic photographs from the Alkazi Foundation for
the Arts collection were on view from January 10 to 22 at the Chitrakala
Parishat.
 An
international conference on the tangible and intangible heritage of Hampi
took place from January 16 to 18, 2009 at the National Institute of Advanced
Studies, IISC Campus, Bangalore. This conference aimed to explore several
aspects from the tangible heritage of Hampi, such as art, architecture
and material culture and the intangible heritage including performance
art, to the issues related to heritage management and sustainable development
through local activism as represented by the formation of the interest
group Friends of Hampi.
The aim of
the conference was to cover a range of issues concerning the tangible heritage
and art, architecture and painting of the Vijayanagara dynasty which flourished
at the medieval site of Hampi. In addition, scientific applications in
the art history and archaeology of Hampi was explored ranging from the
archaeometallurgy of bronzes to the acoustics of the resonant pillars and
applications of satellite imagery and digital technology, while the intangible
heritage of its performance arts was also be touched upon including puppetry.
The inaugural
session covered lectures by leading experts of Hampi including a special
lecture on the Alkazi collection of the first photographs of Hampi by Greenlaw,
by George Michel and John Fritz, with keynote addresses by S Settar, Hon
Director, IGNCA, Southern Regional Chapter and Michael Tomlan, Cornell
University, USA. Sharada Srinivasan, National Institute of Advanced Studies,
Bangalore, presented an invocation Bharatanatyam performance exploring
the theme of the resonant 'musical pillars' of the Vitthala temple, Hampi.
Some of the
other prominent guests and delegates included Anna Dallapiccola, Anila
Verghese, Kathleen Morriso, S Ranganathan, Nalini Thakur, Sangeeta Jindal
and Rahaab Allana, Curator, Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, Surendra Kumar
and Ramesh Sirsi of Friends of Hampi.
In an interactive
session with the local body of Friends of Hampi, the pressing issues in
the sustainable development and management of Hampi was brought to the
fore. The cultural program on the 17th January featured an extravaganza
of two local puppetry troupes from Hampi performing the local epics.
Craft from Kinhal from Crafts Council of Karnataka and artworks on Hampi
were also on view.
The program
was sponsored by Government of Karnataka, INAE, Indian Institute of Astrophysics,
Global Heritage Fund, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research,
Hampi Foundation, IBM, Iconanalytical and others. |
