Art Writers’ Award 2022 Winner Ranjana Dave

The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, in collaboration with TAKE on Art, is pleased to announce that Ranjana Dave has been selected as the winner of Art Writers’ Award 2022.

Ranjana Dave is an artist and writer. Her practice, emerging from her movement training in Odissi and her writing and research, unfolds at the intersection of text and movement. She is the editor of Improvised Futures: Encountering the Body in Performance (Tulika Books/West Heavens, 2021). Recent performance work includes Age Sex Location (asl), 2020. Ranjana was programmes director at Gati Dance Forum, where she initiated the annual journal, Indent. She developed a curriculum for a master’s programme in dance practice with colleagues at Gati, and taught on the MA Performance Practice (Dance) programme at Ambedkar University Delhi. She has also taught at Ashoka University. Her writing has appeared in Firstpost, The Hindu, Scroll, Time Out, Asian Age, Indian Express, and Marg Magazine, among other publications.

It was a very competitive edition and our jury reviewed compelling applications over several weeks. We would like to thank our esteemed jury members Parul Dave-Mukherji, Daniel Christinger, Katya Garcia-Anton, Bhavna Kakar and Akshay Pathak for their constant support throughout the selection process.

This edition’s research residency will take place at Villa Sträuli, Winterthur, Switzerland, an ideal choice given the city’s rich cultural heritage, diverse range of cultural activities, many museums, and renowned contemporary architecture. During a 60-day research period in Switzerland, Dave will look at how language shapes the body of performance and spaces of training and rehearsal within the Swiss and Indian contexts.