TAGORE IN SPAIN

While Rabindranath Tagore, the greatest of Indian poets and the first Asian to get the Nobel Prize (1913), has now been virtually forgotten in the entire Western world, he is still passionately remembered in Spain and Latin America. Children recite his poems, poets discuss him in cafes, flamenco singers in Andalucia as well as rock singers in Latin America use Tagore’s lyrics. This is all the more surprising because Tagore has never been translated into Spanish from the original Bengali and a mere 10% of his works exist in Spanish. 

The Objective is to revive Tagore's popularity among the younger generation and raise his profile in the Spanish-speaking world by revealing the contemporary relevance of his literary and artistic works. 

THE EVENT

The varied cultural manifestations around Tagore in the Spanish world will be brought together on one common platform in three Spanish cities – Barcelona, Salamanca and Valladolid.  It will be a two-day event in every city filled with discussions, paper presentations, poetry readings, music, dance and art, highlighting the different facets of Tagore’s genius, many of which are not known in Spain or elsewhere. The programme in each of the three cities will have a unique character in its interfacing of local culture with some of the leading Tagore specialists who will travel to the conference from India and other parts of the world. 

Tagore in Spain is being targeted at the youth, seeking to change the conventional stereotype of Tagore as an “Oriental mystic” to that of a true internationalist who was politically engaged, constantly in dialogue with other disciplines and one who speaks to us today not only through his poetry but also plays, novels, music and painting. 

·              SCHEDULE

UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA: 27^th and 28th 

Sept, 2011

BARCELONA : 30^th Sept and 1st Oct, 2011

Venue: Casa Asia

VALLADOLID: 3^rd  and 4^th October, 2011

Venue: Casa de la India 

·           LIST OF EVENTS 

1. Seminars:  Tagore’s presence in Spain  will be organised with local specialists on Tagore along with some international scholars such as Prof. S.P. Ganguly, William Radice, José Paz, Emilia Cortes, Agus Morales Puga, etc. The second part of this seminar would be titled  Translating Tagore: Translation as  Interpretation  (where translators and poets  will deal with the challenges & problems in translating Tagore into Spanish).
2. Readings, Recitations, Music: Parallel readings in Spanish, English and Bengali of a selection of Tagore's poetry. This would be the first-ever contact between Spanish and Bengali through Tagore. The highlight of this session will be a special presentation and performance of Rabindrasangeet (Tagore’s songs) by one of its finest exponents (Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta) who will demonstrate how Tagore had often drawn upon western melody and other musical genres and then transformed them in his own way. It  will include Maria Villares, a Cuban musicianwho uses Tagore’s lyrics and a young classical composer, Mariaelena Pena de Prada who does variations of Tagorean melody on theclassical guitar. 
3. Tagore as Choreographer: Lecture and performance on the eclectic dance form evolved by Tagore, his ideas about choreography and its contemporary relevance. This will be a lecture presentation followed by a live performance by dance scholar and performer Dr. Ananya Chatterjea, Director of the Dance Programme, Theatre Arts and Dance, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA.
4. Tagore as Painter: Mumbai-based art scholar and philosopher, Prof. Prabodh Parikh, will outline Tagore’s contribution to modern Indian art. The talk will be visually accompanied by Tagore’s paintings.
5. Tagore and Cinema: The first day’s session will end with the screening of Satyajit Ray’s ‘Charulata’ (1964) based on a Tagore’s novella and the second day will end with Rituparno Ghosh’s latest film, ‘Noukadubi’ (2011). These films will be  subtitled in Spanish for this occasion and seen in the Spanish world for the first time. Indranil Chakravarty, professor of cinema and Convenor of the event, will introduce the films, highlighting the relationship between Tagore and cinema.
6. Tagore and the Theatre:  One of India's top theatre experts - Prof Samik. Bandopadhyay - will make an elaborate presentation about how different theatre directors across the world and particularly in India, have interpreted Tagore's plays on the stage. This will also include Tagore's own theatre productions. The talk will be accompanied by very rare production stills and videos of staged plays.
7. Publications in Spanish: Two publications are being currently prepared in Spanish – one would be a collection of major critical works on Tagore translated into Spanish for the first time along with an exhaustive Spanish bibliography and filmography. This book, titled “Redescubriendo a Tagore” / Rediscovering Tagore (eds. Indranil Chakravarty & Prof. S.P. Ganguly) will also include some of the seminar presentations and is being published by the Spanish embassy in New Delhi. The other publication will be a selection of Tagore’s writings for children in Spanish.
8. Tagore and Gandhi: The Tagore-Gandhi debate is one of the most fascinating debates in history, not only in India but anywhere else. Two of the greatest personalities of the 20^th century had immense respect for each other but thoroughly disagreed on several issues, particularly with regard to the question of cultural identity, interpretation of history and most importantly, their ideas about the validity of nationalism. Prof. Prabodh Parikh, an expert in this area, will make a presentation on this topic along with the screening of a film. This event will coincide with Gandhi’s birthday on Oct 2. 
9. Exhibition of Tagore’s books in Spanish: Mr. Jose Paz, the major collectionist of Tagore publications, has agreed to do an exhibition of all the major Tagore books in Spanish, from the earliest ones in 1914 till date.
10. Documentary: The entire event will be made into a documentary on high-end digital video with a multi-camera set-up along with individual interviews, event build-up and street scenes to highlight Tagore’s position in Spanish life. The film will be made into a one-hour long film that will be distributed on DVD that will help disseminate this unique event around the world with multi-language subtitles. This will be carried out through a coproduction arrangement between Whistling Woods International Film Institute in Mumbai and NIC, a major film school in Madrid.

·              COLLABORATING ORGANISATIONS 

1. ILACI (Indo-Latin American Cultural Initiative), Mumbai                                         [Initiator, developer, fundraiser and partial sponsor of the  project. ILACI is providing leadership to the project.]
2. The Curatorial Bureau, Madrid  [Coordinator in Spain]
3. Casa Asia – House of Asian Culture, Barcelona 
4. Embassy of Spain in India, New Delhi
5. University of Salamanca
6. Casa de la India, Valladolid
7. University of Barcelona, Barcelona
8. Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India
9. Indian Council of Cultural Relations
10. Whistling Woods International Film Institute, Mumbai
11. NIC (Film Institute), Madrid

TAGORE IN SPAIN

UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA: 27^th and 28^th September, 2011

CASA ASIA,  BARCELONA: 30^th Sept and 1^st October, 2011

CASA DE LA INDIA, VALLADOLID: 3^rd  and 4^th  October, 2011

 PROGRAMME

1. A two-part seminar (Tagore in Spain) will be held. The first part,  titled Tagore’s presence in Spain  will be organised with local specialists on Tagore along with some scholars who are also Spanish experts such as Prof. S.P. Ganguly of JNU, William Radice (Tagore’s foremost translator in English) and José Paz (the Spanish Tagore scholar who has the world’s largest collection of Tagore publications). The second part of this seminar would be titled  Translating Tagore: Translation as  Interpretation  (where translators and poets  will deal with the problems of translating Tagore). This part would draw upon the participation of the Dept. of Literature and Dept of Translation of the universities in which the event will be held.

2. Readings, Recitations, Music: This session will have parallel readings in Spanish, English and Bengali of a selection of Tagore's poetry, and plays. This would be the first-ever contact between Spanish and Bengali through Tagore. It  may include two Latin American musicians who use Tagore’s lyrics in their musical compositions. The highlight of this session will be a special presentation and performance of Rabindrasangeet (Tagore’s songs) by one of its finest exponents (Ms. Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta) who will demonstrate how Tagore had often drawn upon western melody and other musical genres and then transformed them in his own way.

3. Tagore as Choreographer: Lecture and performance on the eclectic dance form evolved by Tagore, his ideas about choreography and its contemporary relevance. This will be a lecture presentation followed by a live performance by dance scholar and performer Dr. Ananya Chatterjea, Director of the Dance Programme, Theatre Arts and Dance, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA.

4. Tagore as Painter: Mumbai-based art scholar and philosopher, Prof. Prabodh Parikh, will outline Tagore’s contribution to modern Indian art. The talk will be visually accompanied by Tagore’s paintings.

   

5. Flamenco Tagore: Presentation of the Andalucian flamenco singers (specially, the famous singer 'El Lebrijano’) where singers will sing the ‘deep’ flamenco (cante jondo) based on Tagore's lyrics. This will also be a lecture cum performance session exploring the link between flamenco and Indian culture. [Please note that Lebrijano’s participation has not been confirmed though other major flamenco singers are being explored.]

6. Tagore and Cinema: The first day’s session will end with the screening of Satyajit Ray’s ‘Charulata’ (1964) based on Tagore’s novella ‘Nashtaneer’ and the second day would end with Rituparno Ghosh’s film, ‘Noukadubi’ (2011). These films will be  subtitled in Spanish for this occasion and seen in the Spanish world for the first time. Indranil Chakravarty, professor of cinema and Convenor of the event, will introduce the films, highlighting the relationship between Tagore and cinema.

7. Publications in Spanish / Book Release: Two publications have been planned in Spanish – one would be a collection of major critical works on Tagore translated into Spanish for the first time along with an exhaustive Spanish bibliography and a filmography. This would also include the seminar presentations. The other publication will be a bilingual edition (English and Spanish) of Tagore’s works for children.

8. Tagore and Gandhi: The Tagore-Gandhi debate is one of the most fascinating debates in history, not only in India but anywhere else. Two of the greatest personalities of the 20^th century had immense respect for each other but thoroughly disagreed on several issues, particularly with regard to the question of cultural identity, interpretation of history and most importantly, their ideas about the validity of nationalism. Prof. Prabodh Parikh, a philosopher expert in this area, will make a presentation on this topic along with the screening of a film. This event will coincide with Gandhi’s birthday on Oct 2. 

9. Exhibition of Tagore’s books in Spanish: Mr. Jose Paz, the major collectionist of Tagore publications, has agreed to do an exhibition of all the major Tagore books in Spanish, from the earliest ones in 1914 till date.

10. Documentation: The entire event will be documented on high-end digital video with a multi-camera set-up along with individual interviews, event build-up and street scenes to highlight Tagore’s position in Spanish life. The film will be edited and made into a one-hour long film that will be distributed on DVD that will help disseminate this unique event around the world with multi-language subtitles. This will be carried out through a coproduction arrangement between Whistling Woods International Film Institute in Mumbai and a film school in Madrid.