Having done many things in my life, from web designing to waiting tables in a restaurant and cutting trees, I’ve realised that to be a cultured person, you have to engage with all that the world has to offer. The mind and the body—even the heart—need to be catered to. For instance, even if you are a cello player, to be able to play it well, you’ve to think about the other arts, see good films, and participate in invigorating discussions,” says Arjun Shivaji Jain, founder and creative head of Red House, a cultural centre in Okhla.
If this sounds like a manifesto, Arjun’s programmes, a mixed bag of Indian and European mainstream and avant-garde art, support this claim. The House’s gatherings began around the Pankaj Tripathi-starrer Mango Dreams. Earlier this year, they screened Electric Moon, an early film by Pradip Krishen, written by Arundhati Roy; both were invited for a post-screening discussion.
Polish actor Joanna Kulig, Pahari miniature painter Dhani Ram Khushdil, mime artist Srikanta Bose, theatre director Kanika Aurora, performance artist Aabshaar Wakhloo, and Italian dancer and professor Luisa Spagna have been other collaborators. The isolation imposed by COVID-19, and the absence of a cultural community in the city besides the need to process the loss of a parent, nudged Arjun to initiate Red House. Trained as a scientist and an artist, he completed his postgraduation from from Central Saint Martins, London, in 2016 and returned to Delhi.
He decided to .
