The Artists

Edvard Munch's The Scream is a depiction of an agonised figure flanked by the vibrant red streaks of the Oslo sky. The thought behind this piece has come under much speculation. Some say that it a depiction of existentialist angst or in the words of the artists himself, "an infinite scream passing through nature." In our case, our interpretation of the same could be that of the skies or times of transition where the central figure (the human) is on the verge of bearing the impact of it all.

We conceived of PROD with the idea of promoting the arts and culture in the Hills. On that note, the one thing that we've found challenging is convincing people to contribute to such a cause and the art related activities that we want to implement here. At the risk of sounding like an art history synopsis or an advocacy of sorts, i would still like to state that the arts are the realizations of culture and civilization to the point of being the ever-ascending pillars of human progress.

Having said that, one still feels impelled to impress upon the importance of the arts in culture, as culture in its broadest sense encompasses not only good but the ugly in civilization. Racism, Gender Bias, Child Abuse, Violence in all it forms, Extortion, Corruption, Disharmony, Discord are a few of the elements of culture one feels are unnecessary in the vision of an ideal world.

The arts emerge from this sea of sour realities not only as individual solace but reflections of the world we live in and also the worlds we have not seen.

Why does one write, paint, act, make music, make movies or dance? Throwing away the esoteric, one would believe it is to communicate. Survival is still so dependent on communication. The arts communicate ideas, issues and feelings and in cases communicate events.

Art and culture create space for imagination, a channel for communication and interpretation. Artists and writers all over the world are exploring, commenting on and giving shape to reality. A free society needs cultural innovation. But art is also an aim in itself, as a mirror and interpreter of our existence, even putting societies under scrutiny and allowing muted voices to speak up against every kind of pressure and oppression. But most importantly, it is a form of self-expression, cultural development and artistic involvement.

The Darjeeling Hills has its fair share of artists from all fields and genres, and immensely talented at that. One cannot stress enough on the vast plethora of skill, creativity and capacity be it music, art, photography, theatre etc of both young and senior, going unnoticed and unappreciated.

We aim at supporting and promoting our artists to be able to provide them with the kind of exposure, audience and patronage that they rightfully deserve.

A full-fledged professionally curated and managed art gallery of Darjeeling contemporary art is one of our goals, hopefully in the near future.