Gender Bender 2022: the buoyant multidisciplinary arts festival is back
Starting today at the Bangalore International Centre, the three-day festival is a celebration of discourse on arts and gender
By Reema Gowalla
After two years of online-only grantee showcases and curated performances (thanks to the pandemic!), Gender Bender is back at being the buoyant multidisciplinary arts festival that it has always been, at a physical space. Over the past eight years, the festival has mindfully selected and provided a platform to promising artistes from different backgrounds and geographical locations, and the 2022 edition is no different. From theatre, storytelling, talks and podcasts to dance, music, installations, workshops, photography and paintings, this year’s schedule is filled with thought-provoking works all centred on gender and related discourses.
The brainchild of Sandbox Collective, Gender Bender 2022 (GB-2022) is jointly organised with Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan. The best thing about this year’s fest — it’s fully in-person, taking place at the Bangalore International Centre (BIC) from December 9 to 11 (11.30 am to 9 pm). Recognised and acclaimed both in India and globally, the festival was presented in Berlin (in January 2020) and showcased at Wolfsburg earlier this year.
It’s also a special year for Sandbox, as co-founders Nimi Ravindran and Shiva Pathak were honoured with the prestigious Goethe Medaille 2022 at a ceremony in Weimar recently. Sharing her thoughts on GB-2022, Shiva says, “We are thrilled to be back at a physical space after the long hiatus. This time around, we have tried to concentrate more on artistes from disadvantaged backgrounds. With gender as the focal point, grantees have crafted their projects that highlight issues related to caste, class and mental health, among others. There are 10 grantees in total, including eight from India and two from outside the country (one each from Bangladesh and the Philippines respectively). We have also added musical performances to the line-up, while there’ll also be a Bollywood dance workshop. Although the discourse remains serious and profound, we don’t want to miss out on having fun at the event and intend to keep the atmosphere informal and playful as much as possible.” If things go as planned, Gender Bender is likely to go international in 2024.
Heterogeneity being at the core of the festival, it’s exciting to see the incredible line-up of grantees and their showcases year after year. One of them adoring the 2022 list is Jafrin Akhtar from Assam. She runs a collective that keenly follows the stories and lived experiences of young people across Northeast India. A feminist grassroots community organiser, Jafrin takes special interest in understanding and building narratives on what she defines as ‘personal is political’. At GB-2022, she is presenting JoyStick — ‘a podcast made with love, curiosity and effort’, featuring three young people from Assam sharing their experiences under a new series, called ‘Men, Masculinity and Mental Health’.
Speaking in the podcast are Anamitra Bora (a gender nonbinary, queer research scholar), Udipto Phukan (a cishet man working at a semi-corporate firm) and Rituparna (a transgender, queer activist, storyteller and library educator). The conversations explore “the subject of men not just as a singular gender binary but how anything of/by men is considered the norm, resulting in the institutionalisation of oppressive capitalist and patriarchal values”. The showcase attempts to “understand what it takes for people to be themselves in a deeply patriarchal and cisheteronormative world”.
Living with epilepsy herself, Jafrin is deeply concerned about health issues — be it mental, sexual/reproductive or menstrual — among the marginalised groups in society. Hailing from a tiny village in Balipara, she has been working with community-driven solidarity circles and support groups for quite some time now. “Issues related to healthcare have always been at the heart of what I do. We have seen instances where even gynaecologists discriminate patients on the basis of their sexual orientation. Thus, forming those support groups became essential,” she explains, adding, “JoyStick is an effort to assure people that their problems are heard. Audio as a medium can make a tremendous impact on people’s minds, especially in rural areas, and the success of this podcast is proof of that. Another persistent factor has been what mainland India and the mainstream media perceive of people living in the northeastern region. That needs to change, and podcasts and other audio-visual mediums can be a great platform to voice our opinions.”
Among the interesting things put up as part of the curated section is Falana Fotowale by Bengaluru-based film and animation studio, called Falana Films. Speaking about the ‘photo booth with a twist’, Aarthi Parthasarathy — Co-Founder of Falana Films — says, “Before digital photography gained world-wide popularity and became an integral part of every modern household, it was the era of the vintage photo studios, where people would dress up and pose in front of scenic landscape backdrops. Hard copies of such photographs have adorned family albums for decades, comprising much of what we describe as nostalgia. At GB-2022, Falana Fotowale aims at recreating the vintage studio experience but with a twist. Contrary to the gendered photo compositions that we saw in olden days — where the male family member always sits in the chair and woman stands beside him — we want to put the focus on the ‘chosen family’ in today’s world, which not only breaks free from the binaries but also embraces loved ones from different gender identities.”
At the studio, you can pick a wig or a mask and get your pictures clicked, and walk out with the photographs in hand. “Even though the curated booth challenges gender roles within the photo frame, the purpose of setting it up as part of the fest is also to take people down memory lane and enjoy the forgotten studio experience. We intend to keep the atmosphere playful and interactive as much as possible,” she adds.
Aarthi — who has been associated with GB for several years now and is also documenting the fest this year — calls it a unique, one-of-a-kind venture by Sandbox. “From visual arts, theatre and films to music and installations, GB challenges the idea of gender in various ways. Although grantees work on their projects in isolation, it’s incredible to see them assimilate their ideas and have a healthy discourse at the fest, all in a casual yet meaningful atmosphere,” she elaborates.
Known for their ghazals as well as their ‘Bluesy, folksy and Jazzy’ tunes peppered with elements of poetry, musical ensemble Muqtalif is adding a special touch to this year’s edition of the festival. Consisting of artistes Aparupa Gupta, Shreyas Vishwaroop and Dhiraj Bannerjea, the group will present what’s described as ‘your life in a song’. Through their piece, Muqtalif will explore songs of love and longing from various genres. And while doing so, the musicians are hoping to “clean the dust off the old diary and feel the now yellowed pages and smell the air that once was new”.
“We are actually going with a clean slate. There is very little preparation made. The idea is to keep things spontaneous and fun. It’s an interactive and collaborative experiment, where you tell us a story and we turn it into a song. We want it to be impromptu, so that one can speak their heart out, shrugging off all inhibitions and boundaries. And we are not looking out for all happy-ending tales. A little gloom can also be expressed beautifully with a song. The idea is to entertain and make art an expression rather than an imposition,” says Aparupa.
Among the other grantees and their showcases of GB-2022 are Meyeli Chele by Anup Let from New Delhi, Nothing but Love by Mridul Kanti Goshami from Bangladesh, Tandemonium by MRS TAN from Philippines, Koro Gochongni by Pranami Rajbangshi from Assam, Revival Disability by Queering Disability from Haryana, Rishabh Shetty from Karnataka, Shehzor from Pigeons and Pearls from Telangana, A Wait by Swaja/Saransh from New Delhi, The Bitter Feminists by Apurupa and Tejaswi from Karnataka.
Meanwhile the curated section will have performances including Where did she go? by The Aahvaan Project, Karaoke with Chutney Mary, Closing party featuring Disco Puppet, Pardafash and Fushi. The installation section will feature Neon Art by Indu Anthony and The Gender Bender Library curated by Amulya Shruthi. Shared Readings and Cuss me pretty are the two student projects, while there is also a Karaoke Bar. Vijeta Kumar will present a talk Unpacking My Library, while Can Activism Kill You? Activism fatigue, and how to rise and shine each day will feature speakers Madhu Bhushan and Rumi Harish. This talk will be moderated by Aarti Mundkur. Vijeta will also conduct The Edys and the Edas: A Writing Workshop. Shruti Kulkarni will carry out another workshop, called Bollywood Dhamaka. There will also be Gender At Play: Zine Making Workshop by Zinedabaad.
Find the schedule of Gender Bender 2022 here. For more details about the festival, visit.
