Exhibition, Salon, Theatre
12 - 30 November

During the Amsterdam India Festival Lloyd Hotel's Cultural Embassy puts the spotlight on a number of prominent productions and personalities from the Indian underground culture.
Hostess Laxmi Narayan Tripathi will put together a programme for her daily 'Mumbai Direct Salon', in which guests of the festival will make an appearance.
The exhibition 'India Innings' features experimental Indian film and work by visual artist Bose Krishnamachari.
The theater performance 'Call cutta in a Box' is an international festival hit, and will be played here in two hotelrooms.
Together, these productions offer a view of today's cutting edge, cosmopolitain culture in India.

The Amsterdam India Festival is an initiative of the Concertgebouw, with programmes throughout town at over 30 locations.

Laxmi's Mumbai Direct Salon
12 - 30 November
daily from 16.00 - 22.00 hrs
free admission

14 - 19 November
Performances of dancegroup with orchestra
20.00 – 22.00 hrs
free admission

The charismatic hostess Laxmi, from Mumbai, invites a host of festival guests in her daily salon. In the evening her dance group will perform, accompanied by an orchestra playing on traditional instruments.
They will bring a repertoire of semi-classical Hindu music, Bollywood songs and Marathi songs, and folk dance from Maharashtra, Delhi, Harayana, Gujurathi, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Assam, Andrapradesh, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.

The Mumbai Direct Salon is English spoken.

This production is realised with a contribution from the HGIS-Cultuurmiddelen, theEuropean Cultural Foundation, thePrins Claus Fonds and the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, and sponsored by Fedex.

India Innings
12 - 30 November
open daily from 08.00 - 01.00 hrs
free admission

Visual artist and curator Bose Krishnamachari (1963) is regarded the mentor of the young generation of artists from Mumbai; the so-called 'Bombay Boys'.
His studio is a hotspot where artists, architects, filmmakers and designers converge and is often compared to Warhol's 'Factory' in the media.
Lloyd Hotel shows Krishnamachari's monumental installation 'Ghost/TransMemoir', which refers to the traditional as well as the new India. The installation consists of 54 LCD screens, which are built into tin lunchcans (dabba), like the ones that are transported daily through Mumbai by the famous deliverers (dabbawallahs).
Krishnamachari portrayed a number of the dabbawallahs. One of the portraits from this series will be shown in Lloyd hotel. Also, one of Krishnamachari's largest painting is exhibited; 'Relocating 'White Cube'.

Filmcurator Shai Heredia composed a programme of experimental Indian film. These will be screened continuously in three custom-made filmcabins in Lloyd Hotel. Next to the commercial Bollywood filmindustry there has always been another filmpractice of avant-garde film. Experimenta, the international festival for experimental film, has been founded in 2003 in Bombay with the aim to bring into the limelight fims produced in the margins of the film circuit.
On invitation of the Cultural Embasssy Shai Heredia, the festival's director, has put together a programme in which this often obscure filmpractice is being researched.

In cooperation with Willem Baars Projects

This exhibition comes together with a contribution from
NCDO, the HGIS-Cultuurmiddelen and theAmsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, and is sponsored by Fedex.

Call Cutta in a Box
12 - 30 November, except 17 and 24 November
Performances start each hour from 13.00 - 20.00 hrs ( start last performance 19.00 hrs)

In two hotelrooms the performance 'Call cutta in a Box' is running. The programmers of the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg have had this production of the Berlin group Rimini Protokoll on their list of favourites for a long time. It is one of the gems of the 'Reality Trend', which flourishes in the alternative theaterscene, and in which Rimini Protokoll plays an important role.
'Call cutta in a Box' brings the phenomenon of the Indian callcenter industry to the attention of the festival's audience in a very personal manner. Members of the public can enter a hotelroom one by one, in order to have an hour's long telephone conversation with a callcenter employee. During this hour's talk, the habitual anonimity will be broken down radically. 'Call cutta in a Box' was performed previously at festivals in Helsinki, Brussels, Zurich and Paris. Lloyd Hotel brings this production in collaboration with the Stadsschouwburg.

Ticketsales exclusively through the Stadsschouwburg, Monday to Saturday from 12.00 - 18.00 hrs, or via internet.
Ticketsales on the day exclusively via the Lloyd Hotel Ticketpoint.
Tickets are € 10,- ( € 8 Sprinters, CJP’ers and students, booking fee Ticketpoint € 2)

Call Cutta in a Box is in English.

This performance is a coproduction with Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, with a contribution from the HGIS-Cultuurmiddelen, and the European Cultural Foundation.

EXTRA: EXHIBITION 'PURE INDIA', 'HIJRAS, INDIA'S THIRD GENDER'
12 - 30 November
open daily from 08.00 - 01.00 hrs
free admission

Pure India is an exhibition of photo portraits made by Henk Bothof and Martin Bakker. They photographed remarkable indigenous people throughout India. From Buddhist monks to people like the Jat, Rabari, Gadaba and Bonda. A book under the same title came out with Veenman Publishers. The exhibition is in the central hall.

Hijra's, India's Third Gender is a photo series by Marc de Clerq, made in Ajmer, India in 2007. On show in the Red Bar.