Artists' Film: The Otolith Group: O Horizon

About

Nottingham Contemporary
19 November 2019 | 6.30pm - 8.30pm
 

O Horizon (2018) emerges from a long-standing research interest in Rabindranath Tagore and his founding of Visva-Bharati, a school in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India, which similarly to the Bauhaus was meant to be a living laboratory and an experiment in art, life, and craft.

The title of the film refers to the surface layer of soil, changed in the area around Santiniketan as the result of Tagore's introduction of new flora in development of the campus. In studying this trajectory, the film extends The Otolith Group's ongoing consideration of the Anthropocene, a premise that denotes that the current geological age is one wherein human activity spurs the primary changes on climate and the environment. With O Horizon, The Otolith Group also proposes that Tagore's project maps onto the notion of terraforming—a term originating in science fiction and now more widely used—whereby a party reshapes the atmosphere of a place for their own needs.

O Horizon reflects upon modernist theories of dance and song developed by Tagore and the experimental practices of mural, sculpture, painting, and drawing developed by India's great modernist artists affiliated with Santiniketan: K.G. Subramanyan, Benode Behari Mukherjee, Nandalal Bose and Ramkinkar Baij. The film draws together visual arts, dance, song, music, and recital to assemble a structure of feeling of the Tagorean imagination in the 21st Century.

Commissioned by bauhaus imaginista.

Nottingham Contemporary has a fully accessible building with lift access on all floors and Changing Places toilets. Click here for more detailed access information, or please contact in advance of your visit on 0115 948 9750 if you would like to talk through your requirements. This event is suitable for visually impaired visitors.