M.I.A To Play In India Later This Year
26 November 2012
News has recently emerged of M.I.A, the British born/Sri-Lankan MC, singer, activist and director performing in India as well as showcasing her art at the international art show Kochi-Muziris Biennale, to be held in Kochi later this year.
This will be the Grammy award winning singer's first stage show in India as part of India's first Biennale which over three months will host 88 artists from over 35 countries (including 40 from India), exhibiting artwork created through mediums such as film, sculpture, new media and performance art.
M.I.A aims to showcase her concern for the environment in India through new art which she'll do alongside a "child-friendly" performance on December 12 at the inaugural ceremony of the three month long show.
"I want to take art out of galleries and make it accessible to the people (...) It will be all fun. It won’t be too serious. I would like all children to come and see it”
In the pages of her recently published book, the artist explained the unifying impact technology, politics and fame have on her work. “Art has really evolved me as a person,” says the 37-year old singer, who clearly doesn’t believe in thought processes of the West. “New India is so plastic. It’s an irony that when the Western world is taking lessons from ancient Indian wisdom, people out here are moving away from it.”
“I want to use art as a vehicle to bridge the gap between the east and west”
You can watch a little interview M.I.A did as part of the build up towards the launch of the country’s first Biennale, considered to be the largest international contemporary art event to ever take place in India: