The first Factory Night in India is hosted at the iconic Slip Disc pub, which is now Voodoo in Colaba, Mumbai. Slip Disc described in the 60’s and 70’s as a swinging discotheque is best known for its impromptu performance in 1972 by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. The memorable event has created many urban legends including how the group developed tracks in collaboration with the local Bombay Symphony Orchestra. Voodoo, formerly Slip Disc, now has a less appealing reputation in the area but remains cutting edge as one of the only gay-friendly nightclubs in Mumbai.
The Factory Night includes exclusive access to the space, footage of the original set list played on the night and an introduction to the local historical context of the space, discussing regeneration and gentrification of Colaba since the 60’s to the present day and onto the future.
Factory Nights Mumbai is a collaborative project with Chatterjee and Lal Gallery, Airspace Gallery and Rednile Projects.
Further Information: Chatterjee and Lal Gallery is a commercial Gallery based in Mumbai with a commitment to promoting artist practices that are challenging and engaging. AirSpace gallery is a Contemporary Art Gallery in the UK and rednile Projects (UK) are an artist led initiate that develop innovative collaborative projects in the public realm.
Rednile and AirSpace Gallery are carrying out an international research project in Mumbai in partnership with the Chatterjee and Lal Gallery to find out how the arts in India (specifically Mumbai) sustain and operate in a different climate to the UK.
Factory Nights Mumbai is funded and supported by: The British Council. Arts Council England and Staffordshire University.
Review by Mort Chatterjee:
There have been few interventions in the fabric of Mumbai’s cultural scene quite so different in nature to the Factory Night at Voodoo. From the gallery’s perspective we were thrilled to be able to invite our mailing list to an evening which genuinely disrupted prevailing assumptions about a given space. Due to the strict encoding of social hierarchies, few of those who have visited our gallery would ever have stepped foot in Voodoo despite the two spaces being tied by geography and history. Furthermore, the manner in which the organisers led guests through the evening provoked a level of dialogue that might not have been reached had there not been some direction given. Though the Mumbai art scene is notoriously resistant to turning up for unfamiliar events, we feel that through repeated efforts in a similar vein to the first Mumbai Factory Night, the idea could very much embed itself into the imagination of the city.
International Research project
Rednile and AirSpace Gallery are carrying out an international research project in Mumbai in partnership with the Chatterjee and Lal Gallery to find out how the arts in India (specifically Mumbai) sustain and operate in a different climate to the UK. This project is funded and supported by The British Council and Arts Council England.
The arts in the UK are heavily funding by public money, the purpose of this visit is to investigate how the arts in Mumbai operate and sustain themselves and to compare any findings to the current UK model. This visit will include a series of face to face conversations with interested organisations and artists in Mumbai including both commercial and non commercial. We aim thought this process to share any knowledge and understanding of working in the UK with the partner organisations. We anticipate that the outcome of this research will enable Rednile Projects and AirSpace Gallery to adopt new models of practice back in the UK, to develop new funding streams and sustain future projects in an international context.
Alongside this research we will initiate a Factory Night Event in Mumbai in partnership with a number of Indian artists and organisations to test out how this highly successful UK project translates to a new art scene and in an international context.
Factory Nights is an experimental research project that brings together artists and anyone creative in an unusual or inspiring venue for one night only, from this we curate a series of new commissions and collaborations in the public realm that develop from the event. The Factory Night in Mumbai will bring together artists, curators and other creative’s to try to initiate ideas and future exchanges and projects with the UK.
Please see full published research here: India Research Document
