Balinese women immersed in their natural environment and in everyday life that expresses female role-play, cultural pluralism, spiritual intensity and the importance of nature is what is being showcased at an exhibition here.
Singapore-based art consultant Sabiana Paoli has curated the photographs from an extensive project by Italian artist Bruna Rotunno to present the "Women In Bali" photographic exhibition that is on till May 5 at the India Habitat Centre's Visual Arts Gallery.
While "Women In Bali" essentially reflects the traditional, there are also elements of advertising and fashion in the treatment of groups and individuals - for instance, a girl in gently undulating water, the organisers told IANS. And, what makes it quite ethereal is the soundtrack by Italian musician Eraldo Bernocchi.
The artist has collected these pictures in a book that has been published by Italy's Silvana Editoriale.
"Bali is a living island, a place that has always stirred in me contrasting emotions, stimulated by its fluid and changeable light, by a rituality made up of gestures that render the invisible visible and, above all, by a diffuse beauty that reflects a harmony that is continually reinvented", Rotunno said in a statement.
Paoli has collaborated with renowned art historian Dr. Alka Pande for this project.
The series of photographs are an attempt to make a comparison of the role of women in India and Bali, two nations permeated by the same religious traditions and to start a reflection on the opportunity for women in society, Paoli said.
"Bruna Rotunno's affair with the island of Bali started 30 years ago, when she visited them for the first time," she said.
"In a project spanning eight years, she has organised her gaze into a story in pictures where every gesture and every figure meticulously translates the essence of a unique place, characterized by a fluid and harmonious energy," she added.
Nature takes an absolutely leading part in the story, represented as the great active soul brimming over with beauty.
--IANS
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