Sankalpa
Encyclopedia
Sankalpa is an installation by the artists Shekhar Kapur
and David Adjaye
shown at Swarovski
Crystal Worlds in Austria.
The title Sankalpa is taken from Indian yoga
-thought and means "resolution", "free will" and "imagination". The moving picture installation transforms the abstract term into a sensual experience in the form of a spatial crystallisation and is an interpretation of the short film Passage
by Shekhar Kapur.
and architecture
.
Together, the film maker and the architect embark shifting conventional limits that determine the viewing of a film and the experience of architecture. Kapur’s film Passage
penetrates Adjayes' kaleidoscopic space and invites visitors to explore and to experience extraordinary architecture and multifarious levels of meaning.
, Shekhar Kapur
has become one of the most successful international directors of today. Together with David Adjaye
, also an internationally renowned contemporary architect, Shekhar Kapur has now designed a venue for a sensuous filmic experience in the Crystal Worlds. They are answering the questions: How might the cinema look like in the future? What happens, if films are no longer simply viewed, but if they integrate the audience into the happening? In the installation Sankalpa, not only pictures are set in motion, but also the visitors: In an "art room" that has been exclusively created for the Crystal Worlds, the visitors follow the sequence of the filmic happening and start to devise their own stories in their heads.
Kapur's complex film Passage
is projected through Adjayes' crystalline architecture, it is interrupted and can be experienced in its endless facets and ideals.
In Sankalpa, the mystical connection between film and crystal
becomes evident:
The fascination of crystal as "a moving picture" that brings ever new aspects and perspectives alive, while it cannot be ultimately explained, is reinterpreted by the film as contemporary light art.
With Sankalpa, the visitor enters a spiritual crystallisation transformed into image and space: both artists invite to become immersed into their filmic Crystal World and to follow your own fantasy, your own Sankalpa.
David Adjaye
, who only came to architecture after a detour via art studies, has realised joint projects with numerous stars of the art world such as Olafur Eliasson
or the Turner
laureate Chris Ofili
. He describes the experience awaiting the visitor of Sankalpa: "A mysterious and hypnotic way of becoming immersed into Shekhar Kapur's film."
is beyond conventional reception: Instead of narrating a linear story, atmospherically and emotionally charged scenes are arranged in such a way that the question of their “correct“ order arises in time.
"In the comprehensive experience, which I create for you artistically, I invite you, each individual visitor, to decide, what it means for you", so formulates Shekhar Kapur
his creative principle.
Accordingly, the story in Passage can be decoded by everybody differently: the Hollywood-actresses Julia Stiles
(The Bourne Identity
) and Haley Bennett
(Music and Lyrics with Hugh Grant
) as well as the British actress and supermodel Lily Cole
find themselves in mysterious ambiances, the exact context remains to be unravelled.
The film, however, does not only present things to see and to think about, but also to hear:
The soundtrack composed by the Academy Award winner AR Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire
) plays with motifs from diverse styles of music.
Shekhar Kapur
Shekhar Kapur is an Indian film director and producer. A critically acclaimed director, he rose to popularity with the movie Bandit Queen...
and David Adjaye
David Adjaye
David Adjaye OBE is a British architect.-Early life:David Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat who has lived in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon before moving to Britain at the age of nine, he led a privileged life and was privately educated...
shown at Swarovski
Swarovski
Swarovski is the brand name for a range of precisely-cut crystal and related luxury products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria...
Crystal Worlds in Austria.
The title Sankalpa is taken from Indian yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
-thought and means "resolution", "free will" and "imagination". The moving picture installation transforms the abstract term into a sensual experience in the form of a spatial crystallisation and is an interpretation of the short film Passage
Passage (2009 film)
Passage is a 2009 short drama film, directed by Shekhar Kapur, written by Sheila Callaghan and Amy Kaufman, composed by A.R. Rahman, and starring Haley Bennett, Julia Stiles and Lily Cole. It was shot in Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina...
by Shekhar Kapur.
The Installation
In search for a new hybrid format two art forms merge in this installation: filmFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
.
Together, the film maker and the architect embark shifting conventional limits that determine the viewing of a film and the experience of architecture. Kapur’s film Passage
Passage (2009 film)
Passage is a 2009 short drama film, directed by Shekhar Kapur, written by Sheila Callaghan and Amy Kaufman, composed by A.R. Rahman, and starring Haley Bennett, Julia Stiles and Lily Cole. It was shot in Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina...
penetrates Adjayes' kaleidoscopic space and invites visitors to explore and to experience extraordinary architecture and multifarious levels of meaning.
Concept and Artists
Since his multiple Oscar nominated world success Elizabeth: The Golden Age (1998), starring Hollywood actress Cate BlanchettCate Blanchett
Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett is an Australian actress. She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award...
, Shekhar Kapur
Shekhar Kapur
Shekhar Kapur is an Indian film director and producer. A critically acclaimed director, he rose to popularity with the movie Bandit Queen...
has become one of the most successful international directors of today. Together with David Adjaye
David Adjaye
David Adjaye OBE is a British architect.-Early life:David Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat who has lived in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon before moving to Britain at the age of nine, he led a privileged life and was privately educated...
, also an internationally renowned contemporary architect, Shekhar Kapur has now designed a venue for a sensuous filmic experience in the Crystal Worlds. They are answering the questions: How might the cinema look like in the future? What happens, if films are no longer simply viewed, but if they integrate the audience into the happening? In the installation Sankalpa, not only pictures are set in motion, but also the visitors: In an "art room" that has been exclusively created for the Crystal Worlds, the visitors follow the sequence of the filmic happening and start to devise their own stories in their heads.
Kapur's complex film Passage
Passage (2009 film)
Passage is a 2009 short drama film, directed by Shekhar Kapur, written by Sheila Callaghan and Amy Kaufman, composed by A.R. Rahman, and starring Haley Bennett, Julia Stiles and Lily Cole. It was shot in Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina...
is projected through Adjayes' crystalline architecture, it is interrupted and can be experienced in its endless facets and ideals.
In Sankalpa, the mystical connection between film and crystal
Crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography...
becomes evident:
The fascination of crystal as "a moving picture" that brings ever new aspects and perspectives alive, while it cannot be ultimately explained, is reinterpreted by the film as contemporary light art.
With Sankalpa, the visitor enters a spiritual crystallisation transformed into image and space: both artists invite to become immersed into their filmic Crystal World and to follow your own fantasy, your own Sankalpa.
David Adjaye
David Adjaye
David Adjaye OBE is a British architect.-Early life:David Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat who has lived in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon before moving to Britain at the age of nine, he led a privileged life and was privately educated...
, who only came to architecture after a detour via art studies, has realised joint projects with numerous stars of the art world such as Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic artist known for sculptures and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer’s experience. In 1995 he established Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin, a laboratory for spatial research...
or the Turner
Turner
Turner is a common surname of English 12th Century origin, meaning "one who works with a lathe". Turner is the 28th-most common surname in the United Kingdom.-List of people with surname Turner:...
laureate Chris Ofili
Chris Ofili
Chris Ofili is a Turner Prize winning British painter best known for artworks referencing aspects of his Nigerian heritage, particularly his incorporation of elephant dung. He was one of the Young British Artists, and is now based in Trinidad.-Early life:Ofilli was born in Manchester. He had a...
. He describes the experience awaiting the visitor of Sankalpa: "A mysterious and hypnotic way of becoming immersed into Shekhar Kapur's film."
Passage - The Movie
Kapur's film PassagePassage (2009 film)
Passage is a 2009 short drama film, directed by Shekhar Kapur, written by Sheila Callaghan and Amy Kaufman, composed by A.R. Rahman, and starring Haley Bennett, Julia Stiles and Lily Cole. It was shot in Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina...
is beyond conventional reception: Instead of narrating a linear story, atmospherically and emotionally charged scenes are arranged in such a way that the question of their “correct“ order arises in time.
"In the comprehensive experience, which I create for you artistically, I invite you, each individual visitor, to decide, what it means for you", so formulates Shekhar Kapur
Shekhar Kapur
Shekhar Kapur is an Indian film director and producer. A critically acclaimed director, he rose to popularity with the movie Bandit Queen...
his creative principle.
Accordingly, the story in Passage can be decoded by everybody differently: the Hollywood-actresses Julia Stiles
Julia Stiles
Julia O'Hara Stiles is an American actress.After beginning her career in small parts in a New York City theatre troupe, she has moved on to leading roles in plays by writers as diverse as William Shakespeare and David Mamet...
(The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Identity (2002 film)
The Bourne Identity is a 2002 American spy film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, an amnesiac attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency . The film also stars Franka...
) and Haley Bennett
Haley Bennett
Haley Bennett is an American singer and actress.She will star in the new FX series Outlaw Country with Luke Grimes and Mary Steenburgen.-Life and career:...
(Music and Lyrics with Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant
Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...
) as well as the British actress and supermodel Lily Cole
Lily Cole
Lily Luahana Cole is an English model and actress. Cole's modelling career was launched by a chance encounter with Benjamin Hart in Soho, London when she was 14....
find themselves in mysterious ambiances, the exact context remains to be unravelled.
The film, however, does not only present things to see and to think about, but also to hear:
The soundtrack composed by the Academy Award winner AR Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
) plays with motifs from diverse styles of music.