Curator and prolific conversationalist Hans Ulrich Obrist will be appearing in New Delhi on Saturday to light the torch of his Marathon series for the first time on Indian soil. The public event appears alongside the Indian Art Summit in what could be seen as a bid to go beyond the more money centred conversations inspired by previous Indian Art Fair events.  Appearing as an alternative to the materialism of the fair, the Marathon is being billed as ‘a spirited interrogation’ that follows a uniquely ‘encyclopedic – philosophical model, based on a very emphatically understood concept of the conversation as a fruitful/successful exchange of ideas and exemplified in the form of the interview.’

Next to a list of internationally acclaimed artists, including Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher (to mention just two who I have seen in UK exhibition spaces), is a list of leading social, political and educational thinkers including Vandana Shiva, whose significant part in the global Eco-Feminist movement is perhaps particularly relevant to the CCA’s own recent exhibition strand. The idea is very much: Interview as Artform.  Details of the event and a great window into experimental art practice in India can be found at: http://www.khojworkshop.org/project/khoj_marathon_hans_ulrich_obrist_series_public_conversations and interviews of the KHOJ Marathon will be published by the Foundation for Contemporary Art (FICA). The question is, for those who can’t be there in person, (interested artists struggling with VAT rises on recession hit Scottish soil?), do the spirited results have a material form? Are they interviews for sale or free to download?

One day after The Macdonald Sisters performed live at the CCA to a full house Jarvis Cocker opened his BBC radio 6 ‘Sunday Service’ with their track Horo Bhodachain (Horo wee old man). For non Gaelic speakers Cocker’s eerie translation is particularly enlightening.

Here is a link http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00w4gs9/Jarvis_Cockers_Sunday_Service_Jarvis_with_Son_Of_Rambo_Director_Garth_Jennings

How to disappear.  Sadly this is not a link to a conceptual art pamphlet but to a documentary film by Marc Silver & Gael Garcěa Bernal that examines the plight of Mexican Migrant workers as they struggle to cross the border into the promise of a better life.  The harrowing documentary is narrated in four parts and can be watched on youtube as part of an Amnesty campaign to raise awareness around the issue.  The film is called The invisibles and can be found at http://www.youtube.com/invisiblesfilms.  If Ken Jacobs hadn’t already claimed it another good title could have been Star Spangled to Death.