Episode 8: Cumin

Poems from a place that could cease to be Concept + discussion: Deepika Arwind Production: Simon Höppner Musik, Artwork: Lionel Dante Dzaack

In this episode I’m trying something new: I’m reading you a performance text of a piece I’m performing in stuttgart tonight (at the DurchBurch festival) as the podcast goes up. It’s called - this thing is about everything **but especially make-up and fascism and loneliness. Concept + discussion: Deepika Arwind Production: Simon Höppner Musik, Artwork: Lionel Dante Dzaack

I’ve been thinking about different themes as I rewrite a play I’ve been working on intermittently for a nearly a year. food, family, immigration, children ... a story of two women on different continents finding their way back to each other in their adulthood. Concept + discussion: Deepika ArwindProduction: Simon HöppnerMusik, Artwork: Lionel Dante Dzaack

In this episode, I go back to a lovely essay from "the marginalian“, a newsletter from Maria Popova essayist and author in which she describes certain "life lessons“ she has had over the years of running this acclaimed project. I go back to these lessons as a guide for reflection as well as a way of looking forward. Concept + discussion: Deepika Arwind | Production: Amelie Kreutzer | Music: Lionel Dante Dzaack | A podcast of the digital stage of PATHOS Munich.

In the sixth episode, I talk about the relationship between artists and institutions, and how the imbalance between these two has always enabled and tacitly approved certain types of behaviors. I was forwarded a message about a young woman citing reasons of toxic behavior for her resignation from a theatre in my home of Bangalore. It's one of the few spaces for contemporary theatre in the city, and it's a place I’ve always considered home, but have had to distance myself from for various reasons now. Concept + discussion: Deepika Arwind | Production: Amelie Kreutzer | Music: Lionel Dante Dzaack | A podcast of the digital stage of PATHOS Munich.

In the fifth episode join me as I talk about writing in general and using Rebecca's Solnit's tips on how to be a writer. A more contemplative episode on the ideas surrounding the practice of writing; we dive into a process of reflection. Concept + discussion: Deepika Arwind | Production: Amelie Kreutzer | Music: Lionel Dante Dzaack | A podcast of the digital stage of PATHOS Munich.

In the fourth episode, I recollect an incident from several years ago, to open up a conversation around the power dynamics in a rehearsal room. How do we create spaces in which we feel safe to make and create? How can we take responsibility for harm we might have caused? These are some of the thoughts in this episode of solidarity through intimacy. Concept + discussion: Deepika Arwind | Production: Amelie Kreutzer | Music: Lionel Dante Dzaack | A podcast of the digital stage of PATHOS Munich.

In the third episode I look at the ways in which gender and the city are intertwined, especially through lived experience. I talk about how this aspect of living the city as a woman and the various connotations that come with it have found their way into my work. I think about public spaces and cities and the often visible differences between a city like Bangalore (where I'm from) and Munich (where I am currently). Concept + discussion: Deepika Arwind | Production: Amelie Kreutzer | Music: Lionel Dante Dzaack | A podcast of the digital stage of PATHOS Munich.

In the second episode of the podcast, I go into some of the questions I’ve been having around race and that big word ‘identity’, as I live and work as a brown woman in Munich. I’m reading German-Indian author Mithu Sanyal’s book ‘Identitti’, as well as curiously observing the experience of ‘being seen’. Also I’m having conversations with friends about race, representation and diversity in Germany and what they think of it. I delve into some personal stories around these themes that have often come up as part of these themes. Concept + discussion: Deepika Arwind | Music and Production: Lionel Dante Dzaack | A podcast of the digital stage of PATHOS Munich.

In the first episode, we’re going back a couple of years, though let’s be honest, the pandemic has really scrambled our idea of the time that has passed since 2020. What did it mean as a performing artist in India who relied on live-ness to be in the midst of a pandemic? In a country with little to no infrastructure and funding for the contemporary performing arts, the pandemic was a wake-up call in more ways than one. join me as I talk you through what went on in this very pivotal time for me as an artist. Concept + discussion: Deepika Arwind | Music and Production: Lionel Dante Dzaack | A podcast of the digital stage of PATHOS Munich.