KYTA (Karma Yatri Travel and Art) is an experimental residency program based in the Himalayan village of Kalga. The focus of the residency is to research and explore the relationship between travel, living, culture, art and expression. The artistic focus is on the process and the confluence of various artistic practices and thought streams across experimental human endeavours. The residency also aims to put Kalga on the global map as one of the choicest places in the world to imagine, produce and experience art.
As a framework, they invite multiple artists from various disciplines and nationalities every year to produce a unified artistic result within a finite time period. Alongside, they are building associations and partnerships with artists, projects and institutions globally to expand the scope of cultural exchange with India.
The 2017 edition brought together 17 artists from Switzerland, South Korea and India with a diverse composition of multiple practices within the core resident artist group – ranging across experimental architecture, new media, sound, land art, fashion, dance, theatre, installation, music, street art, painting, writing and material research. The focus continued to be on the give and take of cultural and skill-based knowledge between the artists forming multiple works with multiple owners.
Curator Shazeb S. and the artists of the residency joined us at Studio G-Spot on 16th October to share their experiences building art and community outside of metropolitan city spaces. The discussion included the insights of engagement with a non-urban space and the efforts made to create a sustainable model for this project.