Text Of Mecia Release For The Arts Based Protest In Bangalore

The story of Nandigram is a grotesquely mediaeval saga of a government
waging war on its own people. It is a story of political forces
undermining the fabric of democratic governance, and of a rogue
government debasing the integrity of the state in its mindless pursuit
of political hegemony. It is a tale not only of the physical
displacement of people but of the dislocation of memories, of the
uprooting of the shared history and myth of uncounted generations
whose lives have been grounded in their native soil. It is the story
of power-crazed, totalitarian forces trying to hook the fabric of
constitutional democracy to their appetite, to follow as they draw.
It is the story of government functionaries - servants of the people -
transforming themselves into political warlords, unable to accept
people's rejection of their arbitrary impositions, crazed by bloodlust
and following a perverted programme of revenge where the brutal rape
and mutilation of women's bodies has been turned into a clinical,
methodical weapon. Nandigram is a tale of immense human sorrow. To
protest against this act of barbarity, we are coming together to
answer the performance of brutality through the performance of
creativity - to answer violence with poetry, music and art; to return
gunfire with candlelight. We, artists and performers, will assemble in
front of the Gandhi statue on Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bangalore, at 14:00
on Sunday, 18/11/'07, and express our horror through a series of
performances - musical, Spoken Word, theatre, installation art, etc.
Some of the key events are:

Commencement - 14:00 hrs, Gandhi statue, MG Road
Performance piece on Nandigram - 14:15 hrs, Gandhi statue, MG Road
Street Theatre performance by Mayaavan - 15:00 hrs, pavement in frong
of Cauvery Emporium, MG Road - Brigade Road Cross
Performance - 'Otherness Of The Body' by Parnab Mukherjee - 16:00 hrs,
in front of Gandhi statue on MG Road
Backward March to symbolize regression into fascism - 17:00 hrs,
Cariappa Park to Gandhi statue
Beginning of candlelit vigil with music-poetry performance - 18:00
hours, Gandhi statue, MG Road

This apart, musical peformances will continue throughout in front of
the Gandhi statue. There will also be installations and other forms of
contemporary arts/street arts.

The aim of this intervention is twofold - to inform people in
Bangalore about the human atrocities in Nandigram, but also to let
people in West Bengal (both the victims as well as the perpetrators of
the massacre) know that in spite of attempts to black out all
information from the region, people in the rest of the country are
coming forward in protest.

If you are associated with the print/visual media in Bangalore, please
do get in touch with us at the contact details given below if you'd
like to cover the event or speak with us about it.
you can mail us on this ID, leave a comment with your contact details
on nandigrambangalore@gmail.com. Or, you may call Arka
Mukhopadhyay on 9880966313 or Kallol Dasgupta on 9902989764.
If you can get this message across to your friends in the media,
that'll also be greatly appreciated.

The Organizers