Artists in Auroville – the current trends

Auroville Today: What is the situation of the artist in Auroville today?

Krishna: In Mother’s ‘A Dream’ of an ideal society, which many people believe is what Auroville should become, she wrote, Beauty in all its artistic forms, painting, sculpture, music, literature, would be equally accessible to all; the ability to share in the joy it brings would be limited only by the capacities of each one and not by social or financial position.

However, the current policy of commercialisation has changed the situation of Auroville artists and of Auroville culture.

Before we examine this in more detail, tell us about the situation before that.

In the 1980s and 90s, art was not considered at all essential to the building of the city. In fact, it was looked upon as a ‘hobby’, not proper work, and the Entry Board would not allow anybody to become an Aurovilian who simply wanted to work as an artist.

At the same time, money was raised for cultural venues like the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium, Kala Kendra, Multimedia Centre, Centre d’Art, Savitri Bhavan and CRIPA (Centre for Research in the Performing Arts). By giving permission for these places for artistic expression to exist, this meant that the community recognised artistic activities as being of value. But there was very little support for artists, who were expected to raise funds for their artistic ouevre, work hard to produce and create, and raise the funds for exhibitions / publications / performances.

In 2010, however, as part of the Integral Sustainability Platform [see Auroville Today

# 255, September 2010], a small group worked for 18 weeks on examining the situation of the arts in Auroville through the lens of Sri Aurobindo’s and Mother’s writings. One thing that became clear was that we needed a separate service for artists. Many artists work in isolation, struggling to do what they did and offer it to Auroville. Since they had no combined platform, it was easy to ignore their voices and the needs of this sector, even though there are more than 200 artists in Auroville.

We formed the Auroville Art Service in 2012 to make this sector known, to give it a voice and provide artists with a common platform to contribute to the city. One of the ways we did this was through a website where you can find out who is doing what in this sector in Auroville and where it can be seen.

Also, we saw that a priority for artists was to be able to sell their work, so we started an artists cooperative that operated similar to an umbrella unit. Unintentionally, this gave recognition for the artists, because the governance structure here is such that you are recognised only when you have a registered unit: before that you do not ‘officially’ exist. Suddenly artists were legal entities and art became recognised work!

There were other consequences which hadn’t been foreseen or planned. For example, when a new policy for activities was suggested, the artists vocalised their situation and requirements and this influenced the policy. So suddenly the artists were influencing the fabric of governance.

Is this the situation today?

No. 

In April 2023, an Office Order was published which took over the management of the AV Art Service. The Office Order explained that they wanted to take over the effective utilisation and management of all the cultural venues. The result was that by 14 April all our emails at the Art Service had been blocked, and new executives had been announced.

The artists immediately recognised this as a takeover which could limit their artistic freedom. In fact, a few of them had experience of this happening in their home countries, where the arts have to conform to the political agenda of those in power.

The community saw this happening almost immediately with a children’s play which was to be performed in Bharat Nivas, but the script had to be submitted for approval beforehand. It was considered ‘anti-national’ and therefore couldn’t be performed in Auroville.

This was like a hammer coming down and making its mark on the whole community – and not just the artists – because it told everybody that ‘We’ are watching you and ‘We’ will not let you express yourselves or use existing venues if what you do is not acceptable to us.

Today, even other public spaces are being denied to us: social gatherings are allowed only in authorised locations, as yet undisclosed. And it is not just physical spaces. Digital spaces like the weekly News and Notes and Auronet have changed policies to disallow some users, and some publications have decided to self-censor; they have to be careful about what they print so that they can continue to exist.

Self-censorship is a sign of being in a totalitarian society, for in such a society you do not have to be told: you know how to behave and you behave in that way because you want to survive.

So access to the work of Auroville artists is being restricted today?

Absolutely, even though Mother’s ‘A Dream’ clearly says that art should be freely accessible to everybody. Artists love to show their work, to share their work freely. But what happens, for example, if the Multimedia Centre’s budget is cut and it has to pay its own way? How much longer will films be shown free for everybody to enjoy?

Or take CRIPA. This is a very unique cultural venue. In CRIPA, Aurovilians who are offering performances for the community can utilise the high-end facilities for free, and admission to these performances is also free. This is much appreciated. It is the second most used cultural venue in Auroville, and in 2022-23 they had 72 performances there. So when the authorities threatened to cut its budget (which doesn’t fully pay their expenses: they rely upon donations to keep running), it could have been the end of this unique experiment. Thankfully this did not happen. But even CRIPA has had to request users to contribute if possible because they need this to keep going.

Bharat Nivas is now the venue for government programmes and can be rented by private individuals. Unity Pavilion refuses to host Aurovilians who do not align with approved political views.

So how are Auroville artists viewed today by the authorities?

We can only draw conclusions from emails insisting that the activities registered under AV Art Service need to generate sufficient income or will be closed as ‘hobbies’. When the current FAMC of the GB decided they would dismantle all the umbrella units, including that of the AV Art Service, they sent a letter only to the artists registered with AV Art Service saying that now they can choose to be a unit under a trust, but their activity has to pay their city services contribution and their health fund contribution, otherwise they will not accept it as a unit. But this ignores the fact that some artists spend 1-2 years preparing work for a show or exhibition or making a film or writing a book, during which time they receive no serious income. And even if they manage to get some reimbursement later, for many of them it does not provide a regular income.  

Such emails imply that the present governance structure does not recognise artists as being useful unless they generate substantial financial returns for the community: the only values now are commercial.

Now artists can’t get a maintenance for their artistic work. They can only get a maintenance if they are doing a recognised ‘job’, like teaching. So people are being told they have no right to exist as artists because it is a hobby, not a worthwhile hobby, and they should do something more ‘useful’.

One assumption is that if you control the sources of finance, you control the people who are dependent upon it. But no artist is doing what they are doing for a salary, and if somebody stops their salary, they won’t stop doing their art. Artists will find another way of supporting themselves, because what you’re talking about is human beings’ need for self-expression. You can force somebody to hide this, to censor it, to keep quiet about it, but you can’t stop it happening.

Artists are very sensitive to cultural shifts and they learn to go under the table when they sense repression, or else they decide to make their point in another way. Take the themes of plays in Auroville from 2021 to the present. Many of them make very sharp comments on power and politics, but these are plays by the likes of Shakespeare – and no one can call a Shakespeare play ‘anti-national’ or ban the production of plays like Richard the Third.

The artists are pushing back in other ways, too. They have objected to being forced into commercialisation. It has been pointed out that a book of poetry, for instance, is not a commercial product, and has a high cultural value. Some artists have been told that their work, which in one case included acting, was “not in line with the guidelines given by The Mother for Aurovilians”. The artists have pointed out that the founding vision of Auroville, as articulated by The Mother, explicitly embraced artistic expression as an essential part of spiritual life. Sri Aurobindo wrote both poetry and plays (and plays need actors), and the Mother, a painter herself, loved music. It is indeed ironic that neither Sri Aurobindo nor The Mother would find a place in today’s Auroville as the artists that they were.

What is the present situation with the AV Art Service?

The Art Service had been looked to by artists for certain facilities and services, and also by policymakers to find out what was going on in the arts. The executives who were appointed by the Auroville Foundation have since resigned. Out of personal interest, I keep a website on which a number of Auroville artists are registered and which produces a weekly newsletter which publishes all the artistic events which are happening. Any Aurovilian artist who wishes to be included can be featured on it.

For it has still not been understood what a huge force art is in Auroville. It is the harmony and the beauty that we want to bring as part of our individual search. And spiritually, when you start to talk about how to connect with the collective psychic being, it is through beauty, harmony, art. When you dry that out, you are in a desert.

This is why I believe that art and culture, along with unending education, are the primary things here, and these are two things which are still on track with what Mother expressed in her Dream. I’m really proud that Auroville is the only place you can go every evening to see a free film, all exhibitions and performances are also free (barring some at Bharat Nivas), and many workshops and classes are available free to Aurovilians.

And there is another reason why a vibrant cultural scene is important. Many countries in the world support the creation of artistic facilities and promote cultural cities because it draws the best talent. A city which has good cinemas, theatres and sports facilities attracts people, not just artists but other creatives like the entrepreneurs and innovators, and in this way it contributes to the prosperity of that city. This is what those who insist that art is just a ‘hobby’ or should be narrowly ‘profitable’ do not seem to understand. Rather than making Auroville more ‘profitable’, they are actually making us more poverty-stricken. Indeed, it is a vibrant and funded cultural scene that will enable this city to grow materially, socially and spiritually.