The Hindu : New Delhi News : French author fascinated by tantric and tribal art works

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 15, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

French author fascinated by tantric and tribal art works

In the Capital recently as part of a "Meet the Author'' programme organised by French Information Resource Centre was French writer Franck Andre Jamme who lives and works in Paris and North Burgundy and has since 1981 published 14 volumes of poetry that have been appreciated worldwide.

His works have been translated into English by John Ashbery and into Hindi by Udayan Vajpeyi. Jamme was awarded "Grand Prix de la Poesie de la Societe des Gens de Lettres" for his life's work last year.

Jamme is also an independent curator focusing on contemporary Indian art, especially "tantric brut and tribal works''. During his visit he managed to explore a bit of Rajasthan and so taken was the author by the colours and art work of the area that he has promised to return. "It is fascinating to see a sort of magic created by colours across a sand desert and how intrinsically woven these are into the lives of the ordinary people there. Tantric art and its involvement in religion and everyday life too was something that I found fascinating and very involving -- these are traits unique to India,'' says the author.

Speaking about his latest work, Jamme says, "I am working on a book titled `Mantra Box' that is written as a dialogue between a man and a woman in sort of a poem form and how their argument is resolved by the entry of a mantra box.'' —

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

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