Pablo Ganguli

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Pablo Ganguli

Pablo Ganguli
Born: November 23, 1983 (age 23)
Occupation: Impresario

Pablo Ganguli (b. November 23, 1983) is a young impresario who has created several international festivals of literature, media and culture, through his organisation, Liberatum.


Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Papua New Guinea

In 2002, Ganguli created Connect UK, a Papua New Guinea based organisation, whose stated purpose was to forge cultural ties between the South Pacific and Britain.[1] In November 2002, the British High Commission and Connect UK jointly put on the first 'British Week' in that country, 'a celebration of British arts, culture, design, education and science and technology'.[2] Festival participants included Janet Street-Porter and Benjamin Zephaniah.[3] Ganguli also directed the first Women's Rights Conference in Papua New Guinea.

[edit] Morocco

Between 2003 and 2006, Ganguli had spent part of his time in Morocco.[4][5][6] Ganguli was head of public relations and events at Kasbah Agafay and Kssour Agafay,[1] a private member's club and luxury hotel in Marrakech.[2]

[edit] Festivals directed by Ganguli

Beginning in 2005, Ganguli began creating and directing festivals in different parts of the world.

[edit] Arts in Marrakech

The Arts in Marrakech International Festival, a festival of English and Arabic art and literature, was held in Morocco from September 29 to October 3,2005, [3] and was proceeded by Scottish Week Marrakesh, September 21-28, also organized by Ganguli.[7]The festival included two art exhibitions, one of Moroccan art and one of contemporary British art, under the aegis of Vanessa Branson, sister of tycoon Richard Branson; interviews: readings; and panel discussions on Anglo-Arabic literature.

Those participating included singer Annie Lennox, sculptor Antony Gormley, author Hari Kunzru, writer Deborah Moggach, playwright Hanif Kureishi, artistic director Ekow Eshun and novelist Esther Freud.[8][4] Other guests included Saadi Youssef and Richard Branson.[9].

[edit] Kitab 1 and 2

Kitab, sponsored by The Hindustan Times, with The Times (UK) as its English media partner, was held at the India Habitat Centre in south Delhi, India,[10] April 7-9, 2006.[5] It was India’s first international literary festival.[11] Speakers included actress Goldie Hawn, member of the British Parliament Clare Short, historian William Dalrymple,[11], writer Nadeem Aslam,[5] UN Under-Secretary General Shashi Tharoor,[5] and journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.[12]

The second Kitab was held in Mumbai, India, February 23-36, 2007.[6][13] Ganguli said the festival was going to be 'Bollywood meets International Literature'.[14] Participants included Shekhar Kapur, Philip Hensher, Jackie Kay, and Geoff Dyer.[7]

[edit] Future Festivals

[edit] Majestic Petra

The Majestic Petra Festival was originally scheduled to be held in December 2006 in Petra, Jordan. Ganguli postponed the festival in October, citing 'security concerns'.[15] In mid-December 2006 it was reported that the festival's location had changed to Dubai.[16] But the festival is now rescheduled to be held in Jordan in 2007; Ganguli is working on organizing another British-Arab International festival in Dubai called the BAI Dubai International Arts and Literary Festival.

Among the numerous confirmed speakers for the Petra festival are authors Hanan al-Shaykh, Martin Amis, VS Naipaul, Vikram Seth and Germaine Greer.[8]

[edit] Other

The third Kitab will be held in Pondicherry in August 2007.[17] The Neemrana Hotel Group owned Hotel De L'Orient is the festival venue.[citation needed]

Ganguli is directing a tour of Pakistani authors (and authors of Pakistani origin) this year in India. [3]

A British-Russian festival,[18], which (according to Ganguli's profile at Counterpoint) will be called "Jewel of Russia", is planned for St Petersburg in October 2007. As of February 2007, Ganguli was hoping to stage a gala performance of Thomas Adès's chamber opera Powder Her Face, alongside talks on climate change, readings and discussions.[3]

A British-Turkish cultural festival in 2008 in Istanbul, called "Rosewater", is also being planned, [9], as is a fourth Kitab in Kolkata, India, in 2008.[17]

[edit] Media

[edit] Comments

In August 2006, a columnist in the Evening Standard (London) noted that Ganguli had made 'the remarkable journey from a student studying French in Calcutta to, seemingly, one of the world's leading literary salonistas in just three years'.[1]

[edit] Personal Life

[edit] India

A British newspaper article noted that Ganguli was born in Calcutta, India, to a family with connections in Indian society, including cultural and diplomatic circles.[1] . His father is an art historian and great-grandfather the private secretary to Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet who was Asia's first Nobel laureate.[3]

In 2000, Ganguli met Simon Scaddan, then British deputy high commissioner to East India, at a musical soiree in the French Consulate in Calcutta.

When Scaddan became British high commissioner to Papua New Guinea in 2001, Ganguli moved into his diplomatic residence as his official consort. The relationship became public in 2003.[1][19]

[edit] United Kingdom

In August 2006 it was reported that the Ganguli and Scaddan had split, although remaining friends, and that Ganguli was living in Scaddan's Edinburgh apartment.[1]

Articles in the Scotsman and Observer Magazine in 2007 reported that Ganguli was living in Wales. [3]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Caroline Philips, 'The boy who beguiled London's literary luvvies', Evening Standard (London), August 24, 2006
  2. ^ 'UK Embassies Overseas: British Week, Papua New Guinea', British Foreign Office
  3. ^ a b c d e David Robinson, "Ariel perspectives", The Scotsman, February 24, 2007
  4. ^ Laurie Werner, 'Travel', Forbes magazine, December 12, 2005
  5. ^ a b c Subuhi Jiwani, 'Literary festival gets a novel spin', Daily News and Analysis, India, March 24, 2006
  6. ^ Tim Bullamore, 'Making a home in Marrakesh', Times Online, June 30, 2006
  7. ^ Tim Bullamore, 'Bagpipers facing a battle to be heard', Times (UK)
  8. ^ Sam Leith, 'The king of Morocco and his carpet magic', Telegraph (UK), October 3, 2005
  9. ^ Catherine Lockerbie, 'Voyage of artistic discovery beneath the sheltering sky', The Scotsman, October 11, 2005
  10. ^ Boyd Tonkin, 'A Week in Books', The Independent (UK), April 14, 2006
  11. ^ a b Geordie Grieg, 'Giggles and some Goldie philosophy', Times (UK), April 15, 2006
  12. ^ Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, 'The snobbery and intellectual passion that is India', The Independent, April 17, 2006
  13. ^ Farrukh Dhondy, 'Confessions of a festival fly', Sunday Times (India), retrieved January 24, 2007
  14. ^ Shalini Singh, 'Kitab 2, the Sequel', Tehelka (India), October 14, 2006
  15. ^ Oliver Marre, 'Looks like no Rania on their literary parade', The Guardian (UK), October 15, 2006
  16. ^ Oliver Duff, ' Festival moves to save Amis and Greer from al-Qa'ida', The Independent (UK), December 14, 2006
  17. ^ a b Jai Arjun Singh, 'I don`t mind being called an impresario', Q&A: Pablo Ganguli, Business Standard, February 11, 2007
  18. ^ James Collard, 'Culture Clubber', Saturday Times Magazine (Saturday Times Newspaper), October 28, 2006, pages 52-54
  19. ^ Paul Gould, 'Diplomatic impunity', Financial Times, September 1, 2006

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/a/b/Pablo_Ganguli_7e46.html"