Purvai; warm wind from the east – An Lanntair’s South Asian arts and heritage project. The Purvai project consists of two interdependent elements; the first is a series of initiatives researching, interpreting and exhibiting the historical material of The Mackenzie Collection, and the second is our ongoing creative exchange programme for artists between India the Hebrides and across the UK. This work culminates each year in our Purvai Festival of South Asian Art and Culture.
Project inspiration;
The Mackenzie Collection, the largest and oldest south Asian arts and research collection, collected by Colin Mackenzie born in Stornoway 1754, is the axis for the Purvai project and for our community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland’s connections to South Asian arts and culture. The collection also provides significant context, meaning and inspiration for the creative collaboration between artists. Through our creative exchange activities between the Hebrides and India, we aim to give artists the opportunity and platform to share, collaborate, learn and make new works together in response to the shared heritage between Scotland and India and the wider UK that has shaped the societies we live in today.
Yatra; Journey was the first creative work to come from Purvai project – a musical confluence of Indian Classical Music and Gaelic vocal traditions drawing on this history. Below is a clip of the premiere performance in Stornoway August 2017.
