23-Oct-2014 12:00 AM
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The Raza Foundation through its series ‘Art Matters’ provides a platform for open discussion on such issues. It endeavors not only to release the true essence of art from the clutches of definitive modernist approach in order to grasp myriad ways of extolling art, but also to stir up debate on the changing meanings of social and political theoretical concepts like rights, justice, liberty, citizenship, etc. Well known, renowned scholars and practitioners from all the diverse fields of arts, dance, music, social science, poetry, and so on are invited for this purpose.
Here, we publish the twenty third panel discussion of ‘Art Matters’, titled ‘Aesthetics of Excess and Transgression’ featuring Kamlesh Shukla, Purushottam Agrawal, Navbtej Johar and S. Kalidas.
Kamlesh Shukla was first the editor of ‘Ingit’ — associated with Ram Manohar Lohia’s ‘Jan’ — and then Pratipaksh, a forceful Socialist political weekly, which had George Fernandes as its chief editor. Reputed literary names like Manglesh Dabhral, Giridhar Rathi and Ramesh Thanvi worked in his team. Born in 1937 in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, Kamlesh did not complete his formal education, but was considered among the most well-read writers of his time. Before he became wedded to the ideas of Ram Manohar Lohia, he was an associate editor with Kalpana, a well-known Hindi literary journal.
Purushottam Agrawal is an Indian writer, academic, novelist, literary critique, theologian, secularist, columnist, and broadcaster, about him, former member UPSC and former professor at JNU. academic interests include bhakti poetry, vernacular modernity, non-violenc.
Navtej Singh Johar is an Indian Bharatnatyam exponent and choreographer. Johar trained in Bharatanatyam at Kalakshetra, a dance school of Rukmini Arundale at Chennai, and with Leela Samson at the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra in New Delhi.
The event was organized at the Indian International Centre on 30th of October 2014.