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Interdisciplinary

Aline Veillat heads to the Himalayas for KYTA 2018

KYTA 2018

About Aline Veillat

Aline Veillat works as an independent artist researcher and is currently working at the FHNW University of Art and Design Basel, Switzerland. She is also an associate researcher at IMéRA foundation for advanced studies in Marseille, France.
Aline’s work has focused on the ecosystem as a system of interaction between organic and inorganic agencies. She is currently involved in three art & science research projects on ecological issues
– Eco-data, Eco-media, Eco-aesthetics
Basel Academy of Art and Design and Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (CH)
– Culture and memories of flood
University Haute Alsace, Mulhouse Research Centre for Economies, Societies, Arts and Techniques (FR)
– Thinking from the bottom up, when the soil yields its secrets
Aix-Marseille University, Mediterranean Institute of Marine and Terrestrial Biodiversity and Ecology (FR).

08 September  – 15 October 2018 / Kalga, Himachal Pradesh

Swiss artist and researcher Aline Veillat will be in Kalga, Himachal Pradesh this September on the invitation of KYTA. Her project, The Soil Song and her participation has been supported by Basel-City and Pro Helvetia New Delhi.

The soil song (working title)
Aline Veillat’s project for KYTA 2018

For the KYTA 2018 residency, Aline intends to present an idea around her actual research. She will explore different artistic thoughts about the relation humans have with the ‘soil’, which is central to life on earth.

‘The soil song’ is an ode to the soil’s non-human beings, and to the contingent relationship, we humans share with them. Considering the specific context of the residency, Aline will explore the direct relation between the human body and clay.

Clay is essential in making minerals accessible to plants. The central actor who makes this possible is the earthworm, by its digestion. Could we collaborate with it? Through her project ‘The soil song’, Aline hopes to develop a project in collaboration with the villagers, involving their myths about soil and non-humans beings. In the process, she hopes to extract and highlight key roles played by agriculture, gardening, food and cooking, pottery, which are all, directly and indirectly connected to the soil and its beings.

www.alineveillat.com

Image: © Aline Veillat. Courtesy of the artist.
Aparte_VideoStill
(Aside – In cows’ track towards the Elves’ land)
Video on how to relate to landscape

 

About the festival
KYTA, a travel and art experiment in and around the Himalayan village of Kalga has announced its fifth edition and will host 10 artists from India and Europe. The residency will focus on building new artworks spread across the village and its structures and producing new performance, live experiences and digital artworks captured and housed permanently in KYTA’s electronic archives.

#KYTA2018 opens on 8 September and runs through 15 October with artists-in-residence bringing new ideas, thoughts, actions and expressions to create new works for the Kalga Art Collection. An Open Village Showcase will be held from 12 – 15 October and will act as a confluence of travel, living, art, expression, culture and community in Kalga. More: https://karmayatri.com/kyta

Curator and Residency Director: Shazeb Arif S.
Host and Residency Producer: Hashim Qayoom

Watch Swiss artist and researcher Aline Veillat talk about her work at KYTA in Kalga, Himachal Pradesh. Aline introduces her project, The Soil Song. (working title) & talks about her first week at the residency.

Video credit – KYTA