Rabindra Sadan Kolkata on the 9th of Feb witnessed a very unique delicate dance between human effort and technology. It was an immersive experience within the cube to remember. For the first time in Kolkata, the project choreographed and conceptualized by the Adrien M and Claire B Company, accompanied by French and Indian dancers Virginie Barjonet and Priyabrata Panigrahiare collaborated to bring art, imagination and the real world together.
Hakanaï uses technology to a poetic effect. Inside a cube fashioned from translucent veils onto which a graphic universe is projected. A dancer takes a virtual journey into a 3D space between dreams and reality. In Japanese “Hakanaï” denotes that which is temporary and fragile, evanescent and transient, and in this case something set between dreams and reality. Lively and performed in real time – Hakanaï is a mix of live video projections, sounds and live elements.
The performance was a part of Focus France at Street Art Now in collaboration with St+art foundation and Alliance Françoise Kolkata. This has been a month long program. Aravani Art Project (India) and Chifumi (French street artist) collaborated to highlight the transgender community through their artworks.
Priyabrata Panigrahiare the performer for the evening danced very gracefully inside the transparent installation that projected laser lights to dance along. The stage of Rabindra Sadan and the acoustic made the experience a very rich one. The Hakanaï experience was my first as it must have been for most others present. We were all under a trance as we watched the screens shift and change and the dance progress in uniformity with Priyabrata; with brilliant music that was in harmony with the story telling.
The 45 minute solo performance linked digital and the performing arts. It was a very successful effort to promote collective creation between France and India, students, artists, and intellectuals. The impact of the performance left the audience in awe as they could take their time and walk through the installation and talk to its creators. The thoughts and senses of all present were full of the visual treat wishing to see it all over again.