| News from the liaison office of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in South Asia No images? Click here  BLUEIf jazz was a colour, what would it be? Blue may simply be a colour that is on the artist's palette, as with Computational Mama. It may be the mood of Ralph Tharayil's debut novel written in verse, asking someone to Roll Back the Mountains. Or the genre that ties the musical acts NNAVY, MoonMot and Erik Truffaz. Going beyond blue, residencies take Vietnamese photographer Ha Dao to Switzerland, while musician Elia Buletti travels to India. In the dual residency, Connect India, artists Shailesh BR and Lou Masduraud travel to ICTS in India and CERN in Switzerland to explore new forms of artistic expression while engaging with cutting-edge fundamental science research. Or to return to blue, perhaps it could be an anthotype - a photograph imprinted with flowers and plants - as Anuja Dasgupta's residency project - reminding us of our planet Earth, the pale blue dot. Pro Helvetia New Delhi  Artwork by Computational Mama IN FOCUS  A film still of an Indian woman with tentacles. Artwork by Computational Mama. Motherhood and AI : Being "Computational Mama"ART+ Computational Mama’s work explores coding, art and generative AI as a form of camaraderie, friendship, motherhood and self-care. She develops and facilitates beginner content and workshops for creative computation, new approaches to computational thinking and the use of generative AI tools. Her generative AI work explores the biases inherent in large data and generative AI, and she has been exploring the spaces where motherhood and AI converge. In an interview with Pro Helvetia New Delhi, Computational Mama talks about this intersection. How did you come up with name ‘Computational Mama’? In 2017, during the last trimester of my pregnancy, I started learning how to code. It became an obvious moniker to showcase my experiments. I used to be a museum designer, I was on bed rest when I took up coding, and that’s where it started. UPCOMING Ralph Tharayil at Long Night of LiteratureS tour in India  Ralph Tharayil. Photo by Mirco Lux. Ralph Tharayil is a Swiss writer and translator of South Indian descent primarily working through text that takes shape in print matter, performances, and audio. His critically acclaimed literary debut "Nimm die Alpen weg" (Roll Back the Mountains) was published in February 2023 with Voland & Quist in Berlin. He will be touring three cities in India with "Long Night of LiteratureS."
Stay tuned to our instagram @prohelvetia_newdelhi for more updates. Ralph's tour is also supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in India under the initiative SwitzerlandIndia75: Success stories to be continued.  NNAVY on India tour  NNAVY. Photo by Emilien Itim. NNAVY is a Swiss singer-songwriter. Her debut EP "Blue" and follow-up "In Good Company" showcase her unique and personal style, which blends R&B, soul, and jazz influences. NNAVY will be bringing her powerful and emotive stage presence to three cities in India.
 MoonMot on India tour  MoonMot. Photo by Lorenzo Terzaghi. MoonMot is a quintet of contemporary jazz with musicians from Switzerland and Great Britain. The frontline features London saxophonist Dee Byrne alongside Swiss trombonist Simon Petermann, while the rhythm section consists of keyboardist Oli Kuster from Bern, bassist Seth Bennett from Scotland and drummer Johnny Hunter from Manchester. MoonMot's musical stylistic devices include three pairs of opposites: composition/improvisation, acoustic and electronic sounds, and even and odd time signatures. The musicians approach these contrasts with an openness that always keeps an eye on both the tradition of jazz music and current developments in other musical styles. In October, the band will tour India to present their new album “Frugal."   Erik Truffaz at the 20th Jazzmandu  Erik Truffaz. Photo by Vincent Guignet. Born in the Pays de Gex, a no man's land that is neither really France nor quite Switzerland, Erik Truffaz has spent his decades-long career pushing the boundaries of what trumpet-led jazz can be. With a hauntingly beautiful tone and innovative use of effects, Truffaz’s music transmits a deep emotional resonance even as it straddles jazz, electronica, drum and bass, rock, and a number of world music traditions. His breakthrough album The Dawn, released in 1998, established him as a pioneering force in contemporary jazz, seamlessly blending acoustic jazz with electronic rhythms. Erik Truffaz – Trumpet In October, Erik Truffaz will perform at Jazzmandu 2024, the 20th edition of the Kathmandu Jazz Festival:
 RESIDENCIES Ha Dao on residency in Switzerland  Ha Dao. Photo by Vu Khoi Nguyen Ha Dao is a photographer and artist based in Hanoi, Vietnam. Drawn by the quiet drama in everyday life, she started out making images that take an imaginative approach to the documentary genre, often through the lens of gender and sexuality. Her current practice incorporates multimedia and explores stories of love on the margin.  From 'If Heaven Awaits' (2024), by Ha Dao. Elia Buletti on residency in India  Elia Buletti. Photo by Herlander Almeida. Musician Elia Buletti was born in Ticino, southern Switzerland, where he completed his high school education before enrolling at the University of Berne to study theatre studies, followed by studies in film and theatre at D.A.M.S. in Bologna. Feeling dissatisfied, he travelled extensively through India, the USA, Mexico, and Central America. Upon returning to Switzerland, he enrolled at HEAD in Geneva, completed his studies, and worked there for several years. During this period, he traveled to Latin America for artistic purposes. Later, he moved to Berlin, where he focused on experimental music through his solo project Delmore FX and the music label Das Andere Selbst, which he founded. He has performed extensively in Berlin, Europe, and overseas, including a tour in Japan, while also DJing on the underground circuit. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, drawing, and writing. During his residency in India, Elia aims to connect with musicians from experimental as well as traditional and religious music. He also wishes to record and perform music. Connect India: Shailesh BR and Lou Masduraud on dual residency in India and Switzerland  Selected for the Connect India residency, Shailesh BR from India and Lou Masduraud from Switzerland will carry out a dual residency at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) and at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. Shailesh BR is a visual artist based in Delhi NCR, India. His practice explores fundamental aspects of our world by examining existing knowledge, systems, traditions, and philosophical thoughts. Utilising a diverse visual vocabulary, he incorporates methods from science, technology into his artistic interventions, creating drawings, object modifications, and machines. In her practice, Geneva-based artist Lou Masduraud proposes alternative narratives to dominant realities. Through sculpture and installation, her body of work explores the intricate network of human activities through formal and material investigations of everyday elements such as fountains, basement windows and pipes. The artists will complete a dual residency at ICTS and CERN, furthering their artistic practice engaging with fundamental research and the scientific communities in Bengaluru and Geneva. PHOTO ESSAY  Anuja Dasgupta. Anuja Dasgupta at Verzasca FotoAnuja Dasgupta is a visual artist, educator and agri-preneur based in Ladakh, India. In an imagedriven Her project ‘Under the Sun’ is an attempt at a collective photographic re-imagination of Valle Verzasca through the lens of alpine flora. Making natural photo-emulsions from the valley’s flora, Anuja prints ephemeral anthotypes layered with echoes of personal testimonies, local tales and living traditions. Anuja shares her work in progress in words and pictures: What struck me first when I reached Verzasca was the blanket of green over the mountains. Ladakh, where I’m based, offers all kinds of barren browns; so this burst of green was quite the welcome. I began exploring the valley on foot, and it didn’t take long to be mesmerised by the vivid floral diversity on each level—from stubby grasses, springing wildflowers, to towering trees. My first induction to the Valley’s elemental rhythms was possible through 68-yr-old Jaldhara Gianettoni from Sonogno, the last village in Verzasca. We walked through the trail following River Verzasca, deliberating on streams, confluences, and waterfalls. Her observations on how different rivulets offer different micro ecosystems, coupled with her suspicions around the familiarity of rocks down at the riverbank with the ones she saw at mountain tops as a child filled me with sheer wonder. I knew I had to work with the river water as a developer to unfurl the striking chromatic qualities of plants under the sun. The impermanence of the anthotype—its going against the very grain of photography as an act of freezing a moment in time— is what pulls me to the medium. Making anthtoypes in Verzasca threw open the remarkable chemical vocabulary of plants, emerging as sentient life forms co-existing with their surroundings. For me, each anthotype I made here is a tender portrait of the pulse of the river, painted with pigments from the plants it nourishes, capturing ephemeral textures and signatures of the deeply interconnected life in the valley. PEOPLE  Jaldhara (68 yrs), who walked with me on trails following the river, introducing me to plants she has grown up around  Lorenza, an avid photographer herself, with whom I hiked up to Lago d'Efra, foraging on the way READING THE VALLEY  River, tributaries and confluences cutting through Val Verzasca  From the many mesmerizing dances of water in Verzasca  Climbed up to touch the mounds of snow—residues of a late winter  Identifying plants EMULSION  Coating emulsion in situ  Grinding in mortar and pestle (Genisteae flower plant)  Straining emulsion through cheesecloth (Genisteae)  Anthotype emulsion (Genisteae)  Emulsion making in situ EXPOSURES  River drift, mud, and sand under the sun, exposing the anthotype  Bugs leaving their traces  Bird visits on anthotypes—the emulsions are their food after all!  Pro Helvetia New Delhi    newdelhi@prohelvetia.org |
