Clik | Edition 41 | November 2024.
We are delighted to connect with you through live events at physical spaces, via hybrid modes or virtually at the click of a button! We invite you to join us, whenever you are ready, or from wherever you are, on myriad creative journeys, where with valued partners in India and in Korea, we explore new pathways and experiences, the magic of live performances and exhibitions or engage with those newly imagined from creation to reception and distribution on digital platforms. In this edition, as we open our cultural calendar, through a combination of phygital presentations, we invite you to evocative journeys and sensory experiences that though moored in local culture, connect and resonate with audiences worldwide!
We hope, with this e-digest, to stay meaningfully connected with you, to discover and engage with the unique, local characteristics as well as the shared, global dimensions of the dynamic, ongoing intercultural dialogue between India and Korea.
Presented by
Korean writer’s participation facilitated by
Supported by
We are delighted, in association with Arts Council Korea (ARKO), to support the participation of talented Korean writer, Hena Kim at the Manorama Hortus Literary Festival in Kozhikode, India.
The Manorama Hortus Literary Festival will be presented from 1-3 November 2024 in Kozhikode (Calicut) in the scenic southwestern state of Kerala in India. The Festival is supported by Malayala Manorama, the largest newspaper group in Kerala in particular and across India more generally. Inspired by the 17th century work Hortus Malabaricus, the Festival hopes to serve as a platform to bring together different forms of artistic expression. Hosted across ten venues, along the scenic Kozhikode beach, the Festival is poised to bring together approximately 300 talented contemporary writers, artists and eminent speakers from India and abroad.
For further information about the full schedule please check: www.manoramahortus.com
Seoul to Mysore: Hena Kim's Creative Journeys
Hena Kim in conversation with Laavanya R Nair
Friday, 1 November 2024 from 2.05 p.m. to 2.40 p.m. at Manorama Hortus, Kozhikode Beach Road, Kozhikode, Kerala.
Wellness and Web of Life
Leander Paes, Hena Kim and Faizal K
Saturday, 2 November 2024 from 5.00 p.m. to 5.45 p.m. at Tulah Clinical Wellness, Ramanattukara, Kozhikode.
Hena Kim was born in 1982 in Seoul, South Korea and studied Korean language and literature at the University of Cheong-ju. She also practices ashtanga yoga and has studied yoga philosophy in Mysore, India. Since 2010, she has published several novels and one yoga essay book, and has won the Today's Writers Award 2010 and the Soorim Literature Award 2016.
Her first novel, Jerry, was the winner of Today’s Author Prize 2010. Her second novel, Junk, was longlisted for the Dong-In Literature Prize 2013. Third novel, The Goldstar Phone, was awarded the Soorim Literature Prize 2016. Most recently, she has published the novel, We on The Chamundi hills. She has also published two books of short stories titled The Blue Tangerine in 2018 and The Deepest breathing in 2022. Hena currently lives in Seoul.
For further information, please contact InKo Centre - T: 044 24361224; E: enquiries@inkocentre.org
We are delighted to invite you to Painting Places, a specially curated exhibition that focuses on landscape painting as a unique repository that foregrounds memory, identity, time and space.
Landscape painting, one of the oldest genres of painting, has always captivated viewers by introducing alternative spatial vistas for the imagination to inhabit. Painting Places delves into the magic of the painted landscape with works by five artists from Tamil Nadu. Their works make visible the varied intentions and expressions that this timeless genre lends itself to. More importantly, their works capture the bond between people and places and the role of painting in building these connections.
Arvind Sundar
Dilip Kumar Kesaven
N.Kirubakaran
R.Rajasekar
Sridhar Kannan
Vaishnavi Ramanathan
Humans share an inseparable bond with land. As Mother Earth, land provides us with physical sustenance. As place, land gives us a sense of cultural and social identity. Over centuries, artists have responded to this primeval connection through the medium of art. Painting Places presents the works of five artists from Tamil Nadu who explore the genre of landscape painting. These artists, whose art practice also encompasses other forms of expression, gravitate towards landscape painting for various reasons. Kirubakaran. N is drawn to the cultural and social aspects that animate a landscape, giving it a unique identity. R. Rajasekar finds a microcosm of physical, geographical and historical traits to explore, in the landscape of Cuddalore, where he is based. Sridhar Kannan captures the rhythm and beauty of agrarian life that he witnesses in the villages around his hometown, Pondicherry. While some of these artists use landscape painting to deepen the connection with their native land, Arvind Sundar’s works are based on his travels across the country. These paintings, which give him the opportunity to study light, colour and structure, enrich and complement other aspects of his art practice. Similarly, Dilip Kumar’s works are inspired by his travels in the Javvadhu Hills. He is particularly fascinated by the roads and boundaries that wind through the landscape creating stunning vistas.
Painting Places highlights the diversity of landscape painting within Tamil Nadu, a region that is known for artists who painted fine landscapes in watercolours and other media. Beyond this, the exhibition is also a documentation of places, moments and people who find meaning through their connection with the land.
- Vaishnavi Ramanathan
Though my primary practice delves into the complexities of abstract forms, geometry, and mathematical systems, my watercolour sketches provide a more immediate and intuitive form of expression. These works emerge from my travels, capturing landscapes as fleeting moments of inspiration. For me, traveling becomes a way to connect with spaces beyond the studio, where the rhythm of nature often mirrors patterns, proportions, and harmony that I explore in my abstract work.
This side practice of watercolour painting serves as a counterbalance to the precision of my geometric explorations. While geometry requires careful planning and structure, these landscape studies allow for spontaneity and play. Each brushstroke becomes a way to engage with the sensory qualities of a place-the changing light, shifting weather, and textures of the land. Ultimately, I see these watercolour works as meditations on place and time. They remind me that, just like mathematical systems, landscapes possess their own inherent logic and beauty. Through this exhibition, I hope to share not only my observations of the world around me but also the deeper connections between Nature's forms and the structured systems that drive my broader artistic practice.
Travelling has always been a source of inspiration for me. My experiences in the Javvadhu Hills, in particular, have deeply influenced my work. The landscape of these hills, while seemingly ordinary at first glance, holds a unique beauty in its simplicity. I am drawn to the natural greens, the scattered stones and the way locals use them to define land boundaries, often accompanied by rustic wood structures. The roads and routes, winding through the hills, appear almost like drawings on a canvas, offering breath-taking viewpoints, where clouds meet the earth. What captivates me most is the harmony between the people and their environment. Their houses, built from materials found on the land, reflect a deep connection to Nature and this simplicity inspires my artistic practice. I choose watercolour as my medium because of its inherent transparency which mirrors the ethereal quality of these scenes. The fluidity and lightness of watercolour allows me to capture the natural essence of the hills, where every view feels like a painting in itself. Through my work, I aim to convey the beauty of these landscapes and the quiet inspiration I draw from them.
Most of my paintings are based on landscapes and the lives of ordinary people that are native to it. I am particularly drawn to the humble people of the soil. They live a genuine life in proximity to Nature. Their inner world of emotions and my own response to their emotions inform my art. The starting point for my art is my travel around my village. Sometimes, I directly paint scenes that interest me. At other times, I take photographs and work with these.
We all share a close connection with landscape and it is important to understand the landscape we inhabit. I try to do this using the language of colours. I work with a realistic/semi-impressionistic style which captures the reality of the environment. Although I am adept at painting with oils and acrylics, watercolour painting is closest to my heart. It is because I feel the medium is closest to Nature.
During COVID, the whole world was locked and all activities were banned. In that unpredictable situation, I began to find joy around me by roaming around our locality with my canvas and paints. My hometown, Cuddalore, is a paradise of a variety of landscapes comprising the sea, plateaus, rivers and plains. It is a region known for its tasty jackfruits that are found in abundance, thanks to the fertile red soil of the region. From my childhood, I was fascinated by its fragrance. That inspired me to travel around my hometown and capture its beauty on my canvas.
The places I paint are both of historical and geographical significance. Many of the historical places I painted, which are associated with the British era, are slowly vanishing. It makes us understand that time transforms everything in the whole universe (including us), without our consent. Nothing is permanent here. While I created these paintings during the lockdown, my inner voices still beckon me to visit and paint more such places. Well, time holds the key. What else could an artist get from Art than this longing and desire to explore? I believe that that is the power of Art and the key to happiness.
My artistic journey is deeply rooted in the knowledge that real wealth is found in the simplicity of the village environment. My paintings- created with oils, acrylics and watercolours- are records of the field, trees and flowers of the land and the daily lives of rural inhabitants. I have always cherished a love for Nature. However, in my work, I transcend its mere representation and instead try to create images that would introduce the world to the unique beauty of the Tamil land. While I am from Pondicherry, my travels have made me understand that each region in the state is unique geographically and culturally. I explore abstract art. At the same time, I am very passionate about landscape painting because it allows me to capture the diversity of Nature and culture around us. I would like my works to strike an emotional chord with the viewer. I would like my landscapes to move audiences and leave a lasting impression on them through their innate beauty and poetry.
Vaishnavi Ramanathan
Vaishnavi Ramanathan is a curator based in India and the US. She has a Masters in Art History from Chitrakala Parishath, Bengaluru. She has curated shows in India and abroad and has served as the Senior Curator for Piramal Museum of Art, Mumbai. She also writes on art for various art magazines.
The exhibition will open on Friday, 22 November 2024 at 6.00 p.m. at the Gallery @ InKo Centre.
On view until Monday, 23 December 2024.
(except Sundays and published holidays).
For further information, please contact InKo Centre - T: 044 24361224; E: enquiries@inkocentre.org
Presented in association with
AccessMusic is a series that aims to provide talented emerging musicians with a space to share original scores and songwriting with those who relate to music as essential and energizing. The ambience is relaxed, intimate, so that the musical connect is immediate, meaningful and inclusive. Presented in collaboration with Unwind Centre, this series which is all about access to and through music, places creativity and musical prowess centre stage even while recognizing the power of the arts as a critical enabler, to foster inclusion and reflection to change hearts and minds.
Allwin Fernandes
Allwin Fernandes is an independent musician who is also a live performer, music producer and a singer songwriter. He has more than a decade of experience in the field and has composed and performed more than 100 songs. He has performed over 300 shows all over Tamil Nadu and is included in the Asian and Guinness book of records for his keyboard skills.
Unwind Center, a renowned music institution in Chennai, has been nurturing young talent for over twenty years, offering comprehensive training in Drums, Guitar, Keyboard, Violin, and Vocals. The Center not only serves as a music school but also provides a platform for aspiring musicians to showcase their work, connect with peers, and share their compositions. Exodus, Chennai's leading music and event management organization, partners with Unwind Center, combining their expertise in producing music festivals, managing radio music, providing club entertainment, and artist management, ensuring unforgettable experiences for music enthusiasts.
Saturday, 23 November 2024 at 7.00 p.m. at InKo Centre.
The AccessMusic series is presented by InKo Centre, in association with Unwind Center, on a bi-monthly basis.
For further information, please contact InKo Centre - T: 044 24361224; E: enquiries@inkocentre.org.
Presented in association with
To honour the incredible poetic prose of Han Kang, we present a reading of her work in Korean, English and Tamil followed by a discussion with a distinguished panel. Our panel comprises three Tamil poets, all accomplished translators and an eminent editor. Together, they will focus on Kang’s unique strengths as a writer; the manner in which historical and personal trauma intertwine; the fragility of human existence; the nature of protest to define identity and agency and the role of translation in providing a vital window to a writer’s oeuvre.
Join us for what promises to be an insightful conversation and reflection to celebrate the extraordinary literary contribution made by Han Kang.
Han Kang 한강; born 1970 is a South Korean writer. From 2007 to 2018, she taught creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. Han rose to international prominence for her novel The Vegetarian, which became the first Korean language novel to win the International Man Booker Prize for fiction in 2016. In 2024, she became the first South Korean writer and the first female Asian writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Han Kang, whose name literally means Han River, was born on 27 November 1970 in Gwangju, South Korea. Her family is noted for its literary background. Her father, Han Seung-won, is a novelist. Her elder brother, Han Dong-rim, is also a novelist, while her younger brother, Han Kang-in, is a novelist and cartoonist.
At 9, Han Kang moved to Suyu-ri in Seoul, when her father quit his teaching job to become a full-time writer, four months before the the Gwangju Uprising, a pro-democracy movement that ended in the military’s massacre of students and civilians. She first learned about the massacre when she was 12, after discovering at home a secretly circulated memorial album of photographs taken by a German journalist. This discovery deeply influenced her view on humanity and her literary works. Her novel Human Acts is the centra
Han Kang's father struggled to make ends meet with his writing career, which negatively impacted his family. Han later described her childhood as “too much for a little child”; however, being surrounded by books gave her comfort. In 1988, she graduated from Poongmoon Girls’ High School, now Poongmoon High School, where she had been a class president. In 1993, Han graduated from Yonsei University, where she majored in Korean language and literature. In 1998, she enrolled at the University of Iowa International Writing Program
Her novel Human Acts was released in January 2016 by Portobello Books. Han Kang received the Premio Malaparte for the Italian translation of Human Acts, Atti Umani, by Adelphi Edizioni, in Italy on 1 October 2017. The English translation of the novel was shortlisted for the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award.
Han Kang's third novel, 'The White Book', was shortlisted for the 2018 International Booker Prize. An autobiographical novel, it centers on the loss of her elder sister, a baby who died two hours after her birth.
Her novel 'We Do Not Part' was published in 2021. It tells the story of a writer researching the 1948–49 Jeju uprising and its impact on her friend’s family. The French translation of the novel won the Prix Médicis Étranger in 2023.
In 2023, Han Kang's fourth full-length novel, Greek Lessons, was translated into English by Deborah Smith and E Yaewon. The Atlantic called it a book in which “words are both insufficient and too powerful to tame”.
In 2018, Han Kang became the fifth writer chosen to contribute to the Future Library project. Katie Paterson, the project’s organizer, said that Han had been chosen because she “expands our view of the world”. She delivered the manuscript, 'Dear Son, My Beloved', in May 2019. In the handover ceremony, she dragged a white cloth through the forest and wrapped it around the manuscript. She explained this as a reference to Korean culture, in which a white cloth is used both for babies and for mourning gowns, describing the event as “like a wedding of my manuscript with this forest. Or a lullaby for a century-long sleep”.
Han Kang was elected as the Writer of International Royal Society of Literature in 2023.
In 2024, Han was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature by the Swedish Academy for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”. This made her the first South Korean writer[48] and the first female Asian writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Han Kang’s Novels
여수의 사랑 (“Love in Yeosu”), Moonji, 1995.
검은 사슴 (“Black deer”), Munhakdongne, 1998.
내 여자의 열매 (“My woman’s fruits”), Changbi, 2000.
그대의 차가운 손 (“Your cold hands”), Moonji.
채식주의자 (“The vegetarian”), Changbi 2007.
The Vegetarian, translated by Deborah Smith, London: Portobello Books, 2015.
Reprint edition: London/New York: Hogarth.
바람이 분다, 가라 (“The wind blows, go”), Moonji, 2010,.
랍어 시간 (“Greek lessons”), Munhakdongne, 2011.
Greek Lessons, translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won, London/New York: Hogarth, 2023.
노랑무늬영원 (“Fire Salamander”), Moonji.
소년이 온다 (“A boy comes”), Changbi 2014,.
Human Acts, translated by Deborah Smith, London: Portobello Books, 2016.
Reprint edition: London/New York: Hogarth, 2017.
흰 (“White”), Nanda, 2016.
The White Book, translated by Deborah Smith, London: Portobello Books, 2017.
Reprint edition: London/New York: Hogarth, 2019.
작별하지 않는다 (“We Do Not Part”), Munhakdongne, 2021.
We Do Not Part, translated by Emily Yae Won and Paige Aniyah Morris, London/New York: Hogarth, 2025.
Han Kang’s Short fiction Collections
내 이름은 태양꽃 (“My name is Sunflower”), Munhakdongne, 2002.
붉은 꽃 이야기 (“The red flower story”), Yolimwon, 2003.
천둥 꼬마 선녀 번개 꼬마 선녀 (“Thunder little fairy, lightning little fairy”), Munhakdongne, 2007.
눈물상자 (“Tear box”), Munhakdongne, 2008.
Awards
1999 – Korean Novel Award for Baby Buddha
2000 – Korean Ministry of Culture Today’s Young Artist Award – Literature Section
2005 – Yi Sang Literary Award for Mongolian Mark
2010 – Dongri Literary Award for The Wind is Blowing
2014 – Manhae Literary Award for Human Acts
2015 – Hwang Sun-won Literary Award for While One Snowflake Melts
2016 – International Man Booker Prize for The Vegetarian
2017 – Malaparte Prize for Human Acts
2018 – Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award [ko] for Farewell
2019 – San Clemente Literary Prize for The Vegetarian
2023 – Prix Médicis étranger for We Do Not Part
2024 – Émile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature for We Do Not Part
Ho-Am Prize in the Arts
Nobel Prize in Literature
Pony Chung Innovation Award
Thanks to: Wikipedia
Mini Krishnan worked with Macmillan India Limited (1980-2000) and Oxford University Press (2000-18), sourcing and editing literary translations for national and international readership of which she has published 124 full-length volumes.
Managing Editor of the TNTB working with twenty English language publishers to take Tamil to the world through translations of poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
Series Editor of Early Indian Fiction covering different Indian languages ( for Harper Collins India)
On the editorial board of the Murti Classical Library of India, Harvard University Press.
Dr. M.D Muthukumaraswamy is a Tamil writer and Director of National Folklore Support Centre in Chennai. In addition to his scholarly work, he has published poetry ( both in English and Tamil), short stories, critical essays, plays and translations.
Original Works in Tamil (translated titles):”Maitreyi and other stories”, “Moonlight as secret companion, essays and a few like essays”, “Playing with water” (poetry), “Essays on world literature,” “;One imagery wins, One imagery kills” (poetry), and Moisture (Nine dramatic monologues and two full-length plays).
His published books of translations include poetry collections by Basho, Mahmoud Darwish, Lao Tse, Fernando Pessoa, Paul Celan, Jorge Louis Borges, Vasko Popa and Ko Un.
Currently he is engaged in writing Semiotic Analysis and English Translation of Kurunthogai, a literary Fiction in English, a long ballad based on Garo transformational narratives and a book of poems in English.
Samayavel Samayavel is an important Tamil poet, who has read World Literature available in English, from his youth. He has translated and published eight books from various countries, available through English translations into Tamil. 'The Vegetarian' by Han Kang was translated into Tamil with due copyright permissions secured by Tamizveli Publishers. With the title மரக்கறி, ‘The Vegetarian’ was published by Tamizhveli Publishers in October 2020. Samayavel says that “The Vegetarian is a rare novel written in a precise poetic language and it was a great experience of translation. It was a challenge to bring the tone of the prose of Han Kang into Tamil. But it was a rewarding experience since it’s a resurrection of my language."
Indran Rajendran is a poet, art critic and translator. He is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Translation award. For the Government of Tamilnadu, he curated a mega painting exhibition of 133 painters on 133 chapters of Tirukural when the Tiruvalluvar statue was unveiled at Kanyamumari in 2000.
Tamizhveli Publishing House House was established in 2014 at Chennai by Mr.Sugan Kalaaban to promote young writers and accommodate innovative Translations from various languages. Senior Tamil poet Samayavel has started to publish his works including Translations through Tamizhveli. He has published his eight Translation Works including Han Kang’s Novel ‘The Vegetarian’ with the title as ‘மரக்கறி.’ Then Dr. M.D.Muthukumarasamy joined and published many important Translation works including Basho’s Haikus. Then other Translators also have published their Works through Tamizhveli. Mr.Appanasamy has published his translation of Italao Calvino’s first Novel ‘The Path to the Spiders Nest’ through Tamizhveli. Totally this publishing house has brought eighty works in which 20 books of Translations.
‘The Vegetarian’ was published in Tamil in October 2020. As a gracious gesture, Han Kang helped in getting the copyright for a very small sum since she liked the idea of publishing ‘The Vegetarian’ in India, a country which promotes the Vegetarianism as a religious practice for the past many centuries.
Wednesday, 27 November 2024 at 6.30 p.m. at InKo Centre.
For further information, please contact InKo Centre - T: 044 24361224; E: enquiries@inkocentre.org.