Starting off with a summer camp involving children and young artists and ending with a roundtable that explored discourses on contemporary feminism in this country, Nexus Culture Nepal (and Lasanaa) in Bakhundole recently concluded a week packed with art, theatre, films, performances, political rallies and polemical discussions. What held these events that were spread across seven days as well as made them most relevant, was the additional impetus of committed and collective activism. Yes, for us, it was a magical week at Nexus, with artivist, Ashmina Ranjit at the helm.

The week-long event, ‘Collaborative Artivism’ (art activism = artivism) was instigated by the ‘52 Artists 52 Actions’ project that was started in Sydney. ‘52 Artists 52 Actions’ is an ‘ambitious, year-long project running from January 2018 to January 2019 highlighting artistic practices across Asia. The project will involve 52 individual artists, some working as collectives, to stage ‘actions’ (performance art pieces) in various locations—some sites are probably random while others are chosen based on some sort of personal, social, cultural significance. These works are then shared via social media platforms, most notably Instagram and Facebook thus making it a global art project shared live with a global audience. I do not know if such feats are unprecedented but they no doubt seem scarce and yet necessary because of their use of art and beauty (arguable, some might say) in addressing social, political, and economic iniquities we might share as a nation and as a globe.

The organisers define the terms of what they do in their performance pieces as ‘an action that can be anything and everything a person can use to communicate and build awareness around important local and global concerns as well as elicit the connection between them. The artists of course have total freedom in what issues they choose to address and what they decide to create in response. Each week for a year, a different artist will drive the project, generating a continuously unfolding archive of creative responses to political and social issues, some shared and others unique to their context. The participating artists represent a wide spectrum of ethnicities and cultural backgrounds across South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, West Asia and the Pacific—everywhere from Bangladesh to Korea, Cambodia to Turkey and the breadth of Australian communities.’ The entire project is facilitated by Australia’s Artspace and the City of Sydney as well as a bunch of other institutions and organisations.

Nexus Culture Nepal had its own specific agendas as it embarked on its week-long collaboration with ‘52 Artists 52 Actions’. In their own words—“Collaborative Artivism brings out the intersections among individual artists and our communities. At the meeting places, at the edge of the self and the other, we have the opportunity to blur boundaries, or to highlight what makes us different. We take steps out of our comfort zones and invite others to sense the world as we do. This is where our creativity happens. This week we present a series of collaborative ‘artivism’ events from feminist and intersectional perspectives. Starting out with a workshop on creating with children, we then feature an open mic night with featured feminist artists, a movie marathon, performances, and a panel discussion with artists, musicians, and anthropologists,”—thus read their event manifesto.

The event had its actual origin much earlier, in fact last month, when the city came together to rally in support of Dr Govinda KC. Ashmina Ranjit and a team of young artists and activists join the gathering at Maitighar Mandala, and walked with a huge cloth mask measuring six feet by three feet, to Baneshwor, ‘where Dr KC’s supporters staged demonstrations’. The mask had ‘pherney’ inscribed on it as a pointer to what the group wanted to address: the desire for change in the administrative and political systems that run this country, the rapidly declining state of the environment, regressing laws regarding civil rights and gender equality— among others. The march was video-taped, to be later made into a breath-taking, collaborative performance on the evening of #Day 5.

But let’s take a look at how the week unfolded. This is a diary of sorts…

Day 1:

It’s August 6. Hiroshima Day.

Today we are going to start off the ‘Collaborative Artivism’ project, finally. Yes, I am excited. For the past week I have been watching the participants in the summer camp, watching them discuss, think, interrogate and create. Their ages range between 6 and 12. There were about six of them, but I see two more coming in today and joining them. The discussions have centred on the issue of pollution and how it is adversely affecting the environment of the Valley, and destroying the quality of life as experienced by its inhabitants. It somehow always comes back to the dust, the ungainly heat, the dirt on its roads and waterways, the air that refuses to be breathed in by human lungs.

3pm—I see community members coming in and eagerly taking up seats around the performance space. The artists have begun trickling in. They have been busy too, collaborating with the kids and creating pieces that address these issues. I have watched Anamika Gautam, Anna Stirr, Dibya Ranjitkar, Kunjan Tamang, Megha Shrestha, Samyukta Bhandari, Sarang Ranjitkar, Siddhanta Pudasaini, Umesh Shrestha and Yajyu Manandhar and Australia’s Julia Scharinger, over the past ten days, immersing themselves in co-creating a meaningful experience for the children. Ashmina was there too, always. Sometimes at the edges of the conversation, when it flowed. Sometimes, alighting at the centre with a stroke of inspiration when the words and feelings ran out of steam.

Uh, time to rise! They are singing the national anthem.

Now it’s an empty stage, and two children have just come on. They are mountains, talking about the Valley in between, the Valley that has gone to ruins. No, they can’t escape for they are rooted to the ground. Nor can they end the human suffering. Others join in. And so they reminisce of Manjushree, of how we need another one now to clean-up our mess. But it’s our mess, and it’s our job to clean up, and the Manjushree we have today is an international author, and not a mythical hero who cut the gorge at Chobar. The 12 minutes pass us by like a flash. ‘Myth to Reality: Redefining Kathmandu’ has set us off on a perfect note!It’s going to be a good week.

(To be contined…)