Motiroti
Encyclopedia
motiroti is a London based arts organisation led by Artistic Director Ali Zaidi. For over ten years the company has made internationally acclaimed and award winning art that transforms relationships between people, communities and spaces. motiroti works at the forefront of ever-changing global social realities, challenging and teasing perceptions of artists, institutions and audiences alike. Aiming to cross geographical, linguistic, racial and religious divides their art whilst exploring difference, celebrates similarities – locally, nationally and internationally.
Working with a range of collaborators within visual and live art, new technology and socially engaged practice, motiroti makes public art with public being central to the making and shaping of the work, using technologies democratically so the work reflects multiple perspectives. The company fosters the development of a lifelong learning culture. Learning and art production are part of the same process, and offer equally potent opportunities to inspire and develop a dynamic exchange between artists and communities.
motiroti was officially registered as a charity in 1996, although the pair had worked together since the late 1980s. Khan left the company in 2004 to become CEO of the Rich Mix Cultural Foundation
while Zaidi continues to be the Artistic Director.
The company has presented works in many countries, at venues such as Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol; Barbican Centre
, London; Bonn Biennale; Brooklyn Academy of Music
; Edinburgh Festival
; Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota; Greenwich Theatre
; Harbour Front Centre, Toronto; Houston International Festival; Institute of Contemporary Arts
, London; Ikon Gallery
, Birmingham; It's Queer Up North, Manchester; Kannonhallen, Denmark; Krannert Center, Illinois; La Ferme du Buisson, France; Leeds Mela; London International Festival of Theatre; Lille 3000; Melbourne Festival; Midlands Arts Centre; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
; Museum of London
; National College of Arts
, Lahore
; National Gallery, Cape Town; National Theatre, Islamabad; Natural History Museum
, London; New Art Gallery, Walsall; New Haven Festival of Arts and Ideas; Notting Hill Carnival
; Oval House Theatre
, London; Queen Elizabeth Hall
, London; REDCAT
, Los Angeles; Romaeuropa Festival, Italy; Royal Albert Hall
, London; Royal Court Theatre
, London; Royal Festival Hall
, London; Royal Geographical Society
with IGB, London; Royal National Theatre
, London; Science Museum
, London; Serpentine Gallery
, London; Sibikwa Theatre, Johannesburg; Singapore Arts Festival
; Tamaseel Theatre, Lahore; Tate Liverpool
; Tate Modern
; Theatre Royal Stratford East
; Tramway Theatre, Glasgow; V&A; Warwick Arts Centre
; West Yorkshire Playhouse
; Whitney Museum, New York.
, Christophe Berthonneau, Sonia Boyce
, dbox, Shahram Entekhabi
, Guillermo Gomez-Pena
, Shobna Gulati
, Pen Hadow
, Indira Joshi
, Isaac Julien
, Akram Khan (Dancer)
, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jamila Massey
, Robin Rimbaud
, Sunetra Sarker
, Shri (musician)
, Jasmine Simhalan
, Talvin Singh
, Nina Wadia
, Benjamin Zephaniah
.Nila Madhab Panda
, Shalalae Jamil, Daniel Saul.
Working with a range of collaborators within visual and live art, new technology and socially engaged practice, motiroti makes public art with public being central to the making and shaping of the work, using technologies democratically so the work reflects multiple perspectives. The company fosters the development of a lifelong learning culture. Learning and art production are part of the same process, and offer equally potent opportunities to inspire and develop a dynamic exchange between artists and communities.
History
Co-founded by artists Ali Zaidi and Keith KhanKeith Khan
Keith Khan , studied Fine Art/ Sculpture at Middlesex University and is an Arts Industry Bureaucrat . who has had an eclectic career in the Arts Scene and co-founded the arts organisation Motiroti in 1996 with Ali Zaidi...
motiroti was officially registered as a charity in 1996, although the pair had worked together since the late 1980s. Khan left the company in 2004 to become CEO of the Rich Mix Cultural Foundation
Rich Mix Cultural Foundation
Rich Mix is a cinema and cross-arts centre located in the in the East End of London, located in Bethnal Green in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.-History:...
while Zaidi continues to be the Artistic Director.
The company has presented works in many countries, at venues such as Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol; Barbican Centre
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...
, London; Bonn Biennale; Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
; Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
; Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota; Greenwich Theatre
Greenwich Theatre
The Greenwich Theatre is a local theatre located in Croom's Hill close to the centre of Greenwich in south-east London.-Building history:The building was originally a music hall created in 1855 as part of the neighbouring Rose and Crown public house, but the Rose and Crown Music Hall was...
; Harbour Front Centre, Toronto; Houston International Festival; Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
, London; Ikon Gallery
Ikon Gallery
The Ikon Gallery is an English gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. It is housed in the Grade II listed, neo-gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1877. The gallery's current director is Jonathan Watkins.Ikon was set up to...
, Birmingham; It's Queer Up North, Manchester; Kannonhallen, Denmark; Krannert Center, Illinois; La Ferme du Buisson, France; Leeds Mela; London International Festival of Theatre; Lille 3000; Melbourne Festival; Midlands Arts Centre; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
; Museum of London
Museum of London
The Museum of London documents the history of London from the Prehistoric to the present day. The museum is located close to the Barbican Centre, as part of the striking Barbican complex of buildings created in the 1960s and 70s as an innovative approach to re-development within a bomb damaged...
; National College of Arts
National College of Arts
The National College of Arts Lahore, usually referred to by its acronym NCA, is a famous old college in Lahore, Pakistan.Like all old institutions, the National College of Arts, has a historical tradition. Much of its present tone was set long ago when it was known as the Mayo School of Arts...
, Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
; National Gallery, Cape Town; National Theatre, Islamabad; Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
, London; New Art Gallery, Walsall; New Haven Festival of Arts and Ideas; Notting Hill Carnival
Notting Hill Carnival
The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual event which since 1964 has taken place on the streets of Notting Hill, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , London, UK each August, over two days...
; Oval House Theatre
Oval House Theatre
Ovalhouse formerly called Oval House Theatre is an Off-Westend theatre led by joint Directors of Theatre Rebecca Atkinson-Lord and Rachel Briscoe in the London Borough of Lambeth...
, London; Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...
, London; REDCAT
REDCAT
Opened November 2003, REDCAT is a contemporary arts center that is an extension of CalArts campus, and serves as the professional presenting arm of the Institute...
, Los Angeles; Romaeuropa Festival, Italy; Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, London; Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
, London; Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
, London; Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
with IGB, London; Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, London; Science Museum
Science museum
A science museum or a science centre is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of...
, London; Serpentine Gallery
Serpentine Gallery
The Serpentine Gallery is an art gallery in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, central London. It focuses on modern and contemporary art. The exhibitions, architecture, education and public programmes attract approximately 750,000 visitors a year...
, London; Sibikwa Theatre, Johannesburg; Singapore Arts Festival
Singapore Arts Festival
The Singapore Arts Festival is an annual arts festival held in Singapore. Organised by the National Arts Council, it is one of the most significant events in the regional arts scene. The festival, usually held in mid-year for a stretch of one month, incorporates theatre arts, dance, music and...
; Tamaseel Theatre, Lahore; Tate Liverpool
Tate Liverpool
Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corporation...
; Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
; Theatre Royal Stratford East
Theatre Royal Stratford East
The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company.-History:...
; Tramway Theatre, Glasgow; V&A; Warwick Arts Centre
Warwick Arts Centre
Warwick Arts Centre is a multi-venue arts complex at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. It attracts around 300,000 visitors a year to over 3,000 individual events embracing contemporary and classical music, drama, dance, comedy, films and visual art.Warwick Arts Centre comprises six...
; West Yorkshire Playhouse
West Yorkshire Playhouse
The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, England is a theatre which opened in March 1990 as part of the regeneration of the Quarry Hill area of the city...
; Whitney Museum, New York.
Notable productions
- 360° (2007–2010) – Bringing to light a rounded contemporary picture of the cultural dynamics between Britain, India and PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. The three year programme consists of 60x60 Secs, three international Arts Residency Labs and a new collaborative work. - Alladeen (2002–2005) – A co-production with The Builders Association which weaved between the ancient legend of AladdinAladdinAladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
from 1001 nights and identity-blurring phenomena found in the teeming metropolises of BangaloreBangaloreBengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, London and New York. - Celebration Commonwealth (2002) – A parade highlighting the Commonwealth of NationsCommonwealth of NationsThe Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
and its contribution of peoples and cultures to the United Kingdom for Elizabeth II of the United KingdomElizabeth II of the United KingdomElizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
's Golden Jubilee Weekend. - One Night (1997) – A piece of visual theatre exploring the shifts between IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n courtesanCourtesanA courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
culture, first-generation British AsianBritish AsianBritish Asian is a term used to describe British citizens who descended from mainly South Asia, also known as South Asians in the United Kingdom...
s and contemporary student life in the United Kingdom. - Wigs of Wonderment (1995–1999) – A performance installation challenging the notions of beauty, objectification and the 'exotic' in Western cultureWestern cultureWestern culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
. - Maa (1995) – An audacious mix of odd mythic creatures, melodrama, snatches of film, towering carnival costumes and scratch animation.
- The Seed The Root (1995) – A series of site-specific installations and performances exploring gender and cultural imbalances, created in collaboration with local businesses in Brick LaneBrick LaneBrick Lane is a street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. It runs from Swanfield Street in the northern part of Bethnal Green, crosses Bethnal Green Road, passes through Spitalfields and is linked to Whitechapel High Street to the south by the short stretch of...
and international and British artists. - Moti Roti, Puttli Chunni (1993–1994) – The United Kingdom's first BollywoodBollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
musical. Winner of Time Out Performance Award - Flying Costumes, Floating Tombs (1991) – An extravagant spectacle inspired by the Hosay Festival in TrinidadTrinidadTrinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
. Winner of Time Out Performance Award.
Notable collaborators
Mina AnwarMina Anwar
Mina Anwar is a British actress.-Early life:Anwar was educated at Accrington Moorhead Sports College, and gained an A level in Theatre in Performance at the Accrington and Rossendale College in 1988 before training at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London.-Acting career:She played Police...
, Christophe Berthonneau, Sonia Boyce
Sonia Boyce
Sonia Dawn Boyce,MBE born in London in 1962 is a British Afro-Caribbean artist, living and working in London. She studied at Stourbridge College in the West Midlands. She works across a range of media including photography, installation and text. She came to prominence as part of the Black British...
, dbox, Shahram Entekhabi
Shahram Entekhabi
Shahram Entekhabi , born 1963, is an Iranian-born video and installation artist. He studied graphic design at the University of Tehran, Iran and architecture, urbanism at state University in Reggio Calabria, Italy.-Work:...
, Guillermo Gomez-Pena
Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Guillermo Gómez-Peña was born in Mexico City and moved to the US in 1978, where he established himself as a performance artist, writer, activist, and educator. He has pioneered multiple media, including performance art, experimental radio, video, performance photography and installation art...
, Shobna Gulati
Shobna Gulati
Shobna Gulati is an English actress, writer, and dancer of Indian origin, best known for playing Anita in Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies, and Sunita Alahan in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street from 2001 to 2006, a role to which she returned at the end of 2009...
, Pen Hadow
Pen Hadow
Rupert Nigel Pendrill Hadow known as Pen Hadow, , is founding director of Geo Mission Ltd, an environmental sponsorship organisation, and British polar guide and explorer. He is the first person to trek solo and without resupply from the north coast of Canada to the North Pole...
, Indira Joshi
Indira Joshi
Indira Joshi is a British actress of Indian ethnicity. She has appeared in episodes of many well-known British dramas, including Holby City, Doctors, All About Me, The Bill and Coronation Street. However, she is probably best known for her role as Madhuri Kumar in the spoof chat show The Kumars at...
, Isaac Julien
Isaac Julien
Isaac Julien is an installation artist and filmmaker.-Biography:Julien graduated from St Martin's School of Art in 1985, where he studied painting and fine art film...
, Akram Khan (Dancer)
Akram Khan (dancer)
Akram Khan, MBE is a dancer whose background is rooted in his classical kathak training and contemporary dance.-Career:Khan was born in London into a family of Bangladeshi origin. He began dancing and trained in the classical Indian dance form of Kathak at the age of seven. He studied with Sri...
, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jamila Massey
Jamila Massey
Jamila Massey is an Indian actress and writer. Massey has had a long career on UK television and radio. She is possibly best known for playing Auntie Satya in the long running radio soap The Archers, Jamila Ranjha in Mind Your Language, and her role as Neelam Kapoor in EastEnders.-Early...
, Robin Rimbaud
Robin Rimbaud
Robin Rimbaud is an electronic musician who works under the name Scanner due to his use of cell phone and police scanners in live performance...
, Sunetra Sarker
Sunetra Sarker
Sunetra Sarker is an English actress, most notable for her role as Dr Zoe Hanna on Casualty.Sarker has a degree in Information Systems for Business with French from Brunel University....
, Shri (musician)
Shri (Musician)
Shri is a leading light in the British Asian music scene. His work combines traditional Indian musical styles with Rock, Jazz, and Drum 'n' Bass....
, Jasmine Simhalan
Jasmine Simhalan
Jasmine Simhalan is a practitioner of the Indian martial arts and classical Indian dance. Her father, Simhalan Madhava Panicker, was a well known Martial Artist. Simhalan is an instructor in Silambam and a Gurukkal in Kalarippayattu. Simhalan is a performer and choreographer based in the United...
, Talvin Singh
Talvin Singh
Talvin Singh Matharoo , is a producer and composer and tabla player, known for creating an innovative fusion of Indian classical music and drum and bass...
, Nina Wadia
Nina Wadia
-Television and film:Wadia first came to prominence in BBC sketch show Goodness Gracious Me, playing characters such as Mrs "I can make it at home for nothing!" and one half of The Competitive Mothers...
, Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah is an English writer and dub poet. He is a well-known figure in contemporary English literature, and was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008....
.Nila Madhab Panda
Nila Madhab Panda
Nila Madhab Panda is a film maker and director from Subarnapur district of Orissa. Nila Madhab Panda’s I Am Kalam has won many national and international awards.-Early life:...
, Shalalae Jamil, Daniel Saul.