Maraa - a media and arts collective

23/01/2025

at the end of their eighth tour, having completed 41 shows of Nazar Ke Samne, across Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. In solidarity with survivors of violence, their dignity and ongoing resistance. Jai Bhim!

20/01/2025

Glimpses from the works created under the MIRRORS fellowship 2024. Experiences of love, desire, risk, longing, gaze and mourning. Masculine feminine is not static, nor fixed. How does it interact with space, with language, with markers of caste, class & religion? How does the body perform and resist? How do we make and unmake ourselves in relation to the world's we inhabit? If you are interested in exploring these and related questions, head to the link in bio. Applications for MIRRORS 2025: a creative fellowship on masculine and feminine are now open!

12/01/2025

MIRRORS 2025
Apply here:
https://Www.maraa.in/mirrorsfellowship

A fellowship exploring the masculine & feminine in all its textures and intersections. We hope to expand the imagination of masculine-feminine through different languages and dialects, reflecting upon daily habits, practices, myths, rituals and speculations from diverse socio-economic contexts. We believe this can also lead us to playful and subversive imaginations that can break down structures that are rigid, oppressive and discriminatory.

हमें खुशी है कि हम 2025 में मिर्रर फेलोशिप का अगला एडिशन लॉन्च कर रहे हैं। हमारी उम्मीद है कि इससे मर्दानगी और स्त्रीत्व के 'आदर्शों' को हम चुनौती दे पाएं। इस फेलोशिप का इरादा है कि मर्दानगी और स्त्रीत्व को हम वहां समझ पाएं जहाँ वो जाति, वर्ग, धर्म, लैंगिकता, जगह, आस्था से मिलते हैं और एक-दूसरे पर असर डालते हैं। हम मर्दानगी और स्त्रीत्व की कल्पना को और खोलना चाहते हैं, अनेक सामाजिक-आर्थिक संदर्भ में, अलग भाषाओं और बोलियों के साथ, रोज़ की आदतों, मिथ्य, रीती-रिवाज़ के ज़रिये। हमारा विश्वास है इससे नए और मज़ेदार कल्पनाओं का जन्म हो सकता है जो सख्त, उत्पीड़क और भेदभाव करने वाले ढांचों पर सवाल खड़ा कर सके।

ಪುರುಷತ್ವ ಮತ್ತು ಸ್ತ್ರೀತ್ವವನ್ನು ಅದರ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ರಚನೆಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಕೂಡುಬಿಂದುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಅನ್ವೇಷಿಸುವ ಫೆಲೋಶಿಪ್ ಇದಾಗಿದೆ. ವಿವಿಧ ಭಾಷೆಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಉಪಭಾಷೆಗಳ ಮೂಲಕ ಪುರುಷತ್ವ ಮತ್ತು ಸ್ತ್ರೀತ್ವದ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಯನ್ನು ವಿಸ್ತರಿಸಲು ನಾವು ಆಶಿಸುತ್ತೇವೆ, ಈ ನಮ್ಮ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಯು ವೈವಿಧ್ಯಮಯ ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ-ಆರ್ಥಿಕ ಸಂದರ್ಭಗಳ ಹಿನ್ನಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿನ ದೈನಂದಿನ ಅಭ್ಯಾಸಗಳು, ಆಚರಣೆಗಳು, ಪುರಾಣಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಊಹಾಪೋಹಗಳನ್ನು ಪ್ರತಿಬಿಂಬಿಸುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂಬ ನಂಬಿಕೆ ಇದೆ. ಇದು ಕಠಿಣ, ದಬ್ಬಾಳಿಕೆಯ ಮತ್ತು ತಾರತಮ್ಯದ ರಚನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಒಡೆಯುವ ಲವಲವಿಕೆಯಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿದ ಸೃಜನಾತ್ಮಕ ಮತ್ತು ಒಡೆದು ಕಟ್ಟುವ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಗಳಿಗೆ ನಮ್ಮನ್ನು ಕರೆದೊಯ್ಯುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದು ನಾವು ನಂಬುತ್ತೇವೆ.

Painting by
Design by

12/01/2025

11/01/2025

At maraa, we've had the opportunity to work with fantastic artists from a range of contexts. We're looking for someone with production & technical skills to join our team. If you enjoy bringing ideas to life, getting your hands muddy with audio- video, working on everything from set up to pack up, interacting with people from diverse contexts,hosting performances in unlikely spaces, and have no objection to going triples/qudrauples on chattri (image 9) consider applying!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2jKwGnXsucXmTzbMgawQxozCfxT8CW_82wKpJ6QE-o/edit

11/01/2025

At maraa, we've had the opportunity to work with fantastic artists from a range of contexts. We're looking for someone with production & technical skills to join our team. If you enjoy bringing ideas to life, getting your hands muddy with audio- video, working on everything from set up to pack up, interacting with people from diverse contexts, hosting performances in unlikely spaces, and have no objection to going triples/qudrauples on chattri (image 9) consider applying!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2jKwGnXsucXmTzbMgawQxozCfxT8CW_82wKpJ6QE-o/edit?usp=forms_home&ths=true

03/01/2025

WE ARE HIRING!
Production & Communications

At maraa, we work closely with communities from diverse social-economic backgrounds. Our work
entails media production (videos/podcasts/text), curating performances, recording (albums, podcasts),documentation (video/film) and other kinds of collaborations with the communities we engage with.

We are looking to hire someone who is passionate about arts and culture and is interested in critically
reflecting on aesthetics and the politics of representation. The person should be willing and open toworking with a diverse range of people. Curiousity to learn, adapt and go deeper is integral to this role.

The work will entail audio/video production, website design, graphic design and managing social mediaand communications for various processes at maraa. The person must have 2-3 years of experience inthese fields.

Preference will be given to candidates from Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi backgrounds. We typically work 5-6 days a week and this will be a full
time paid position. The work environment is horizontal, with opportunities for cross-collaboration &learning.

Key Responsibilities:
● Audio-video production across various processes at maraa
● Graphic Design and Branding (posters, hand outs, tickets, logos etc) for various processes on a
need to need basis.
● Co-management of social media handles (facebook, twitter, instagram)
● Liasoning with team members to ensure timely content for social media communications
● Conceptualisation and Maintenance of maraa website
● Artist management including event production, bookings, hospitality etc.
● Audio-Visual documentation of maraa events/workshops/consultations and related activities.
● Creative strategies for visibility and continuity of maraa’s identity in public facing communication
● Management of the studio space and equipment at maraa

Probation period of 1 month, following which the position will be confirmed.
Languages Required: Fluency in English and Kannada (written and spoken)
Application Deadline: 20thJan, 2025
Location: Bangalore
Apply via link in bio!

03/01/2025

WE ARE HIRING
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2jKwGnXsucXmTzbMgawQxozCfxT8CW_82wKpJ6QE-o/edit

01/01/2025

We are delighted to launch into the new year with our dear friend 's debut film Untouchable: Laughing Out Caste. The film follows the groundbreaking journey of stand up comedian Manjeet Sarkar as he humorously exposes India's often unspoken caste system. Celebrated for his bold humor, Manjeet has earned recognition through five national tours of his solo show 'Untouchable' across India and abroad, including a show at the UN.

Co directed by Mike Noone, the film captures Manjeet 's unique perspective on rural and urban life, caste and class, and the transformative impact of art on social awareness. The screening will be followed by a discussion moderated by ekta from maraa.

RSVP link in bio, see you there!

21/12/2024

22nd Dec at 1030 am.
Join us for a reading of Sandhyarani's short story collection with .

10/12/2024

There is no Public Space
Reflections by ekta on the frictions within public space, politics of representation, and the shifts in maraa's creative practices over the years.
https://homesweethomestudio.org/There-is-no-Public-Space_ekta

"Over the years of learning from lived experiences, our work has moved considerably away from public space, because our work was no longer about an abstract public in an abstract public space. We zeroed in on building our work as longer processes, where we internally had to clarify to ourselves why, where, and to whom we were addressing our work. What is their involvement in the creation of it? We discussed the issues around politics of representation, where we wondered how much we were embodied in an experience when telling stories of others. Also bearing in mind the stereotypical representation by mainstream media, we were keen to not just show the intersectionality of exploitation, domination, discrimination, and violence, but also represent the creativity and agency of thousands of workers who engage in their struggles with dignity and hope. Here, the arts have immense potential—on the one hand, in challenging the aesthetics of gaze, which marks certain populations with stigma and discrimination, by celebrating their lives and experiences; second, in enabling self-representation within these communities, so that they can tell their stories on their own terms. This also challenges the upper caste/class hegemony within the arts sector, that decides the boundaries between art and experience, between labor and culture, between materiality and aesthetics. We aim to break the notions of who is the artist, who can make art, whose art is worth seeing, and what is the marketspace that governs these questions."

Image 1: secrets from the scarecrow
Image 2: women workers release Bevaru: a workers newspaper
Image 3: Tightrope: city as circus
Image 4: horaata: journeys of protest songs

27/11/2024

October Jam
Glimpses from the MIRRORS showcase which opened up a pandora’s box as the fellows traced their own experiences of masculine and feminine in their own lives and the communities / geographies they come from. The three days opened up a space for vulnerable conversations on notions of body and social expectations, love and loss, desire and risk, mourning and celebration, courage and fragility. Mirrors inside mirrors, refracting and reflecting our own prejudice, dreams, and fantasies.

22/11/2024

The hands, amplified
The voices, responding

Chelsea Leventhal
Featuring Big Bang
Produced by maraa, a media and arts collective as part of "Sounds of Labour," a project tracing labour practices in Bangalore that are systematically invisibilised.

This multi-channel sound installation explores the sounds and rhythms of physical labour carried out in Koramangala Slum Cluster through an inter-generational conversation with young artists from the area who voice their everyday life experiences, compassion, and memories in poetic responses.

Credits:
Sound Design & Composition and Sound Installation: Chelsea Leventhal
Field Recordings: Alex Mohan & Ekta
Voices: Sathya, Robin, Gautham, Sanghamitra (Big Bang)
Studio Recording: Megha Varsha, Nihal Passahna, Chelsea Leventhal
Coordination & Tech Support: Nihal Passanha

Art in Transit Location Information

From Outside: Enter the Cubbon Park Metro Station via Entry/Exit A (H.A.L Office) or Entry/Exit B (Chinnaswamy Stadium side).
After passing through security, proceed down the stairs. The installation is located before the ticket scanners, allowing for free access to the public.

Google Maps link for Entry A
Google Maps link for Entry B
From the Metro Platform: Exit towards Entry A and turn around near the SBI ATM.
If you have any difficulty locating the installation, please call: 9731551767.

18/11/2024

October Jam
Kappeya Kanasu/Frog’s Dream’ is devised by members of the Maraa collective, Ekta and Angarika with support from Samvada. Working with students across the city, the play is based on collective dreams, forbidden acts and the private desires between young people and the social structures they find themselves within. Amidst violence and discrimination, the play embodies a hope for magic at the horizon. The performance tooks place at Dr Gopal Raju government college in Anekal in collaboration with Sieds & in the Samvada campus in Bangalore.

In Love Purana and Pakshi Purana, Du Saraswathi takes us into a fictional world of Santhimmi, a woman from rural Karnataka, exploring the relationship between mind and body against the backdrop of passing seasons. She pushes us to expand our imagination of masculine and feminine. Viewed together the performances open up a space of speculation about what freedom and love could mean for each one of us. After the performance, the audience deliberated on where we draw the boundary of love, whether gender roles are mere convenience or a matter of 'coordination' to keep the system going?

We were happy to launch 'Body Song' an exhibition of paintings by Rumi Harish. His paintings are an invitation into his inner world, utopias and fantasies, where we experience trans lives filled with color and beauty. Trained as a musician, Rumi turned to painting as a way to cope with the changing textures of his voice, during his gender transition. Body Song in many ways, is the synergy between his music and painting. At the launch, Rumi shared how just the way, a brush might sound different on different canvases, his voice too, can sound different, in passing stages of his life.

15/11/2024

October Jam

A series of performances exploring rebellion and silence, isolation and yearning, the flow between masculine and feminine, from diverse perspectives.

Lifafiya, performed by Anushi and co devised by ekta, took us deep inside the mundane and the routine, to excavate the subtle violences and suppressed desires, between generations of women, each of whom seek a room of their own. The performance compels us to think about the ways in which caste shapes our moralities and the cost of rebellion.

In 'Upar Wala Kamra' performed and directed by Anoop Gupta, we witness the relationship between a father and a son, where the son is suffering from depression. Situated within the household, the piece investigates the strong forces and bonds that operate within a family, which pull us together and tear us apart. The performance makes us wonder if experience can always find its articulation in language. In the discussion after the show, one of the audience members posed the question of where one can find hope and how to deal with loneliness? The performance opened up a space of conversation around solidarity and how the arts can offer a way to heal and to find hope.

In her piece, ‘Notions: In between you and me’, Savita Rani says, "I am a woman and I do not sacrifice." A solo piece devised by Savita pushes the audience to confront ourselves and address violence within intimate relationships. The performance keeps us on the edge, on a journey from shock to amusement, using humor and satire to question our positions within social structures

In Maatu, a silent conversation, Deepak Kurki and Mirra, the body takes centerstage. Observing the body and its gestures and language, we sense the weight of emotions and words that are not expressed.