Forthcoming Shows

The Warkari Cycle

 

In July 2010 Lucia King traveled to Pune, India to shoot a film based on a pilgrimage that takes place each year in rural Maharashtra by pilgrims known as the ‘Warkari’. ‘The Warkari Cycle’ (48mins looping, with two associated 6-minute works) will have its first screening at: Documentary Practices in India, Persistence/Resistance Festival (London).

For the overall festival schedule and programme see link:
http://magiclanternfoundation.org/persistence-resistance-in-london/

This festival has been co-produced by the Magic Lantern Foundation (New Delhi) and four London-based universities: LSE, Goldsmiths, Westminster and SOAS and runs from1st to 8th Nov 2011 inclusive.

Dates of Lucia King’s installation:

7th and 8th Nov 2011 installation open 10am -8pm (both days)
Location: Room 116 (1st Floor) SOAS University, Main Building Russell Square. London WC1H OXG http://www.soas.ac.uk/visitors/location/maps/
The festival link above also shows timing of talks associated with this screening
 

Panorama of the pilgrimage at a route stop in Maharashtra July 2010 shot on location    Photo credit: Uma Tanuku

Synopsis

The Warkari Cycle

The Warkari Cycle (48 mins.) is a music and dance-driven video installation consisting of eight short inter-linked episodes. It follows the footsteps of the Maharashtran pilgrims who undertake this twenty-one day walk each year, in celebration of the legacy of medieval sants (poet-saints) from their region. Around 1,000,000 pilgrims walk, sing and visit significant sites together crossing the Solapur district towards Pandharpur. Rather than offering an informational commentary, the film immerses the viewer into the event itself. Each episode explores one environment of the pilgrimage as a living choreography, sensing out the places that connect the pilgrims to this collective memory. From the mass dances at the temple of Tukaram to the quiet intimacy of songs sung by bards (or vaghyas) committed from birth to follow this movement, the pilgrimage is traced in some of its more unexpected tributaries. In the same way that the event returns year after year re-living the mass celebration, the film too is composed as a cycle of fragmentary insights; a poetic and intuitive film.

 

For requests related to DVD copies or screenings of the installation please send an e-mail to: lucia@luciaking.co.uk
 

home