By Amala Dasarathi

UPDATE

As a run-up to Gender Bender 2016, Sandbox Collective brings Vikrant Dhote, a performer, writer and director from Bombay, who had put up the show Dekho Magar Pyaar Se at Gender Bender 2015, to do a full-length show from the 27th to 31st July, at multiple venues in Bangalore. The performance aims to question the idea of gender as being limited to just man and woman, and is designed as a solo that ties together four different sequences using extracts from the High Court’s 2009 Naz Judgement on Section 377. You can find out more about the event here.

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June 22, 2016

After a successful edition in 2015, Sandbox Collective has collaborated with the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore for a bigger, better and more diverse Gender Bender 2016.

The panel of judges for Gender Bender 2016 were Anmol Vellani, Paromita Vohra, Kirtana Kumar, and Gautam Bhan, all of whom are prominent personalities in Bangalore from diverse fields such as theatre, activism, and film, with a nuanced understanding of gender. They met on 14th June to select the finalists for this year’s Gender Bender. Out of over 100 applicants, the judges have shortlisted 12 finalists to present their work at Gender Bender 2016. “We intended to have only 10 finalists, but the applications were so good that the judges decided to increase it to 12,” says Shiva Pathak of Sandbox Collective. Seeing this increased potential, the grant amount for the finalists to work on their projects has also been increased substantially.

Six of the finalists are from Bangalore, while five are from other regions in India, and one is from the US. Their projects explore gender through multiple forms of media, perspectives and sensory experiences. From sensorial theatre and performance art, to gender on BMTC buses, they have it all. We don’t want ruin the surprise for you by revealing too much!

The project is co-curated by Sandbox Collective along with The Ladies Finger.

Gender Bender stretches the boundaries of gender, as we understand it, looking at it in new, nuanced ways.

Here are the finalists of Gender Bender 2016:

Aruna Ganesh Ram
Avril Stormy Unger
Deepikah Rahul Bharadwaj
Diya Naidu
Kadak Collective
Kokila Bhattacharya
Morgan Campbell
Neha Singh
Padmini Ray Murray
Sanyukta Saha
Varun Kurtkoti
Varun Narain

Congratulations to all the finalists!

See you at Gender Bender 2016 from 2nd to 4th September. Here are some details on last year’s Gender Bender to give you an idea of what you can expect this year.

Follow the event on Facebook for further updates.