PUNE
Intersections & Interventions | Prabhakar Barwe & Paul Klee

The Zapurza Museum of Art & Culture is an art initiative by PN Gadgil & Sons, a leading jewelry brand with a 190-year heritage. Its goal is to foster a sense of aesthetics in young minds by showcasing various arts and cultures of this country. Zapurza aims to utilize the museum as a learning resource for all age groups. We believe that art is an integral part of human life and enriches people's lives through understanding and appreciating the various arts and cultural fabric.

 

At the heart of the Zentrum Paul Klee is the exploration and communication of Paul Klee's work. Other programmes in the fields of music, literature and agriculture as well as lively events complete the unique profile of the museum as a cultural centre and multi-disciplinary venue. The Zentrum Paul Klee houses the world's largest collection of works by Paul Klee, with 4,000 paintings, watercolours and drawings, archives and biographical material from all creation periods. In a location characterised by nature and culture, architecture and landscape, the Zentrum Paul Klee offers new approaches to one of the most important artists of European modernism. Klee's pictorial thinking, his multifaceted oeuvre and his broad horizon of interests allow for far-reaching thematic perspectives. The collection is presented with a changing, and temporary exhibitions on other artists or themes reveal new connections to Paul Klee and his time.

The starting point of this project will be to translate selected writings of Klee into Marathi and of Barwe into German for the first time in history, in order to offer deeper knowledge exchange with cultural interaction. These translations will tie into a two-year long program (2024-2025) of events, workshops and exhibitions both local in Pune/ Maharashtra and internationally. This will allow to identify affinities and differences in Klee’s and Barwe’s work and educational concepts, which concern, abstractionism, surrealism, and spirituality as well as the experiments with materials and design.

Collaborating with Diamantenschliff - the online translation academy of Goethe-Institut South Asia (spearheaded by Goethe-Institut Mumbai), our objective extends beyond mere translation. Diamantenschliff is aimed at creating a stronger German translation community in South Asia to  strengthen professional connections between translators, create mentorship programmes, as well as support their work. Target languages include Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Bangla, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Sinhalese.

Mira Hirtz is an independent curator, performance artist and movement practitioner. She looks at the intersections of art, health, ecology and science. Her work dives into concepts of body, care as well as human and non-human interdependencies. It takes many formats, from exhibitions, and performances to painting and facilitating workshops. Mira Hirtz graduated from the MFA Creative Practice at TL Conservatoire London and from the MA art research at University of Art and Design Karlsruhe and co-curated the program series “How do we care?” at Badischer Kunstverein 2020. Currently, she is the access advisor for the arts-based charity Turf, London and co-curated the touring exhibition “Critical Zones. In Search of a Common Ground”, initiated by the ZKM | Karlsruhe, the Goethe-Institut South Asia, and Bruno Latour.

Raju Sutar, an arts school graduate with over 30 years of experience in the art world, has gained recognition for his work both nationally and internationally. As a member of the Zapurza team, he contributes as a curator and actively participates in various events and exhibitions. Specializing in contemporary art, Raju focuses on creating large-scale paintings, sheet metal installations, and fine art photography alongside video installations. "I always approach my work with the perspective of a painter, seeing objects through the lens of lines and structure," explains the Pune-based artist, who has explored a wide range of mediums throughout his career. Known for his commitment to preserving traditional crafts, Raju excels in translating emotions into visual language and conceptualizing innovative projects. Additionally, he has curated significant exhibitions featuring artists from around the world and has been invited to prestigious events such as Documenta 13 in Germany and the Florence Biennale 2015.

Professor emeritus of German Studies, Dr. Rajendra Dengle has a long and illustrous career as a university lecturer, scholar, dean and literary expert. Dengle first studied philosophy and German at the University of Pune; in 1979, he received his MA in German literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, where he completed his doctorate in 1990. From 1979 to July 2021, he taught at the Centre of German Studies, School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies, JNU, with special focus on literary theory, history of German literature, modern German literature, and cultural studies. 
Doctoral and postgraduate scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) took him to the universities of Bielefeld, Bonn, Heidelberg, Bayreuth, Wuppertal, and Freiburg. He worked as secretary of the Goethe Society of India from 2004 to 2010 and was responsible for the publication of its yearbook. Dengle has translated numerous publications and literary texts from Marathi into German as well as from German into Marathi.

Milind Brahme studied German at Fergusson College, Pune and at the Centre of German Studies, JNU, New Delhi, where he completed his PhD in 1997 under the guidance of Prof Dr Rajendra Dengle. Titled Wandern ohne Ankunft, his doctoral thesis was a comparative study of the literary work of the Marathi writer G A Kulkarni and Franz Kafka.
Milind has taught German language and literature at DU, JNU, and is currently Associate Professor for German at IIT Madras. He has worked as a professional translator-interpreter and has been part of literary translation projects – which he enjoys the most.
He has been associated with the Goethe Society of India since its inception, serving as joint secretary between 2004 and 2010, and helping with the production of the Society’s Yearbook. He edited the 2007 volume of the Goethe Society’s Yearbook titled Translation as Cultural Praxis.
Milind has been a recipient of numerous scholarships, notable in this context being one from the Goethe Institut Pune in 1986 which took him to Germany for a Sommerkurs, and in fact triggered the interest in studying Germanistik.
His interest in questions of pedagogy and education has led to successful and continuing research initiatives in cooperation with the Institut für Sonderpädagogik of the University of Würzburg in the areas of Multi Grade Multi Level Pedagogy and Inclusive Education.
He was recently appointed DAAD Research Ambassador for South Asia for the Humanities and Social Sciences for the period 2022-2025.
 

Jayashree Hari Joshi studied German at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and taught German after receiving her MA.

She has been working at the Goethe Institute since 1996, was a program officer for twenty years, and since 2016 has been the director of the institute's library in Mumbai. In her doctoral dissertation she compared the alienation effect in epic theatre and in the Rasa theory of ancient Indian dramaturgy.

In addition to the Indian languages Marathi, Hindi and Sanskrit, she is fluent in English and German. She has translated German poems and plays into Hindi, Marathi and English. She also writes poetry in Marathi, which is regularly published. She has translated plays, poems, short stories novels and children's and youth literature from English and German into Hindi and Marathi. Her book reviews and essays on literary topics appear regularly in printed or digital form in various national newspapers and magazines. Jayashree Joshi lives in Mumbai.