We are the World

“When we moved back to our respective hometowns after college,we found it difficult to collaborate on an art project owing to the distance. But we decided to use this to our advantage and came up with the idea of this video. Svea and Katrin sent me video clips taken in the course of their daily routines. I also made similar records and then took help from Anibrain,a Pune-based visual effects studio,to help me stitch the clips together,” says 29-year-old Borawake. The 12-minute video has clips of people from different parts of the world turning their head up,down,left and right,like in the MJ video. It also features Borawake and her two friends in a choreography sequence.

“The idea was to show snippets of each of the three cities and hence,connect them. For my part of the choreography,I shot at a dingy dhaba called Kaveri at BT Kawde Road,got people at the East Street bus stop to dance with me,walked around Empress Garden and took shots of a bunch of naked wires hanging from a pole in the middle of the road. All of this is typical of Pune,” says Borawake.

The background score has been made by blending the recordings of conversations overheard in these three cities with a simple beat. Blantar’s piece,performed by three dancers including herself,is influenced by Prabhudheva’s performance in the 1997-song Mustafa.

The video ends with a hint at Indian mythology. Borawake says that while Blantar was taking her last shot dancing in front of a wall with graffiti art of a face with a third eye shut on the forehead,a man started to impulsively dance along with her. Using special effects,Borawake opens the third eye,symbolising that once Lord Shiva opens his third eye,he sees the world as one.

“It summed up our idea of the diversity of human life on earth. Even though all of us are different,we are the same,” says Borawake.