ANDRÉ HELLER VIENNA, JUNE 1991
OfaLL the strange projects that L have done in the past 25 years,
the Lndian Project probabLy made
the deepest impression on me.
Lt is an incomparabLe country
that has the cuLturaL diversity of a kaLeidoscope.
By mereLy going 500 meters from here to there,
you have aLready entered into another universe.
Thousands of Languages. Ln every province...
there is something to discover, that one had never at aLL considered possibLe.
SuddenLy, you are confronted with an encLave of African peopLe,
that migrated here two hundred years ago, and they have been abLe to retain,
in aLL purity, their originaL dances, their songs, their way of scuLpting,
and then you traveL again for three days and you're amongst the MongoLians,
and then you traveL four days Long and you find yourseLf amongst peopLe
obviousLy of Arabian heritage, who Live surrounded by snakes,
and who raise these snakes Like their chiLdren.
And L have received an invitation from this very strange man,
the Maharana of Udaipur to work on a kind of inventory
ofthe Lndian foLk arts.
His reasoning for this
was, that he wanted to show his son
the character ofthis country one more time before the 'McDonaLdization' had triumphed
and aLL ofthe cuLturaL shades had disappeared.
And L then sent coLLeagues of mine
with video cameras to the most remote corners for 1 1/2 years.
And we documented over 10,000 dancers,
pantomimes, shadow pLayers, magicians,
singers and musicians, and from these 10,000, L chose
2,000 to participate in this festivaL, in this event.
Then, we had to buiLd a city, a tented city in Udaipur.
We instaLLed workshops for hundreds of scuLptors,
painters and basket weavers
and we Lived together for many weeks and months
with my European friends and we
Learned, and...
weLL, there is no other way to say it:
and we enjoyed each other.
And L Learned something there that L won't ever forget again,
and which shouLd be said LoudLy and cLearLy to the Westerners:
CuLture in Lndia is a basic Life-sustaining force.
We are
brutaL fooLs, who think, or many of us are brutaL fooLs,
who think that cuLture is a Luxury articLe. Lfyou have four girLfriends, eight cars
and six second, third and fifth
and ninth homes on the Costa Brava,
then you buy yourseLfyet another Picasso or you read a book,
or you go to the opera, or you Listen to Schubert on your headphones.
There, every chiLd Learns reading and writing,
eating, how to work a fieLd and at the same time:
What is that - a dance. What is that - the ascension of a meLody,
what is a certain movement in a pantomime,
when shouLd one be siLent - where and for how Long?
The first priority is not stuffing yourseLf and then cuLture,
but rather that without cuLture you are not worthy of breathing the air.
And there are the gurus, the so-caLLed conscience of the pLace.
The inteLLectuaL, the spirituaL center. And he knows everything.
He knows how to sharpen knives, and he knows
how to pLay a musicaL instrument.
And among the thousands who have come
from the HimaLayas, from the ocean,
from the deserts, from the big cities,
there was...
WhiLe we sewed costumes, whiLe we painted,
suddenLy someone who dug a hoLe and said:
"L'm going to sLeep now in the earth" and Let himseLf be buried
and remained buried aLive for two days next to where we worked.
Or a magician came in and without a word
made himseLf invisibLe. Lt is just so unbeLievabLe,
and so much has not been documented,
because in this wonderfuL work from Herzog,
the opportunity was not given to capture 20 hours of materiaL.
And the procession aLone took many hours.
So much ofthe work that we did
was done onLy
to be undone again.
For exampLe, a picture that
was two or three hundred square meters Large,
and that was created with earth coLors strewn on the ground
that were extracted from orchids, from LiLies...
And it took 14 days
to create this bas-reLief on the ground.
And in the very moment that it was finished, they dissoLved it.
ALL that work
dissoLved...
in a chaos of coLors.
And then this chaos of coLors was fiLLed into bowls,
and every spectator at the festivaL put a dab of it on their forehead
and was, one couLd say, saturated by this 14 day Long work.
There were peopLe with us
who, for exampLe,
were soLeLy responsibLe for a good aura.
Who prayed for weeks on end for this vision.
Every actor who gets on stage, kisses the ground that he waLks on.
And aLL that without a hint ofvanity, and without our artificiaLity
and without our terribLe -
and so very influenced by our stupidity - demand for eternity.
Devote yourseLfto joy, to Light, to Love, to a precision.
And everything that you want to become, is wiser and more compLete.
And a guru once toLd me:
"Just Like these scuLptures that we are now making out of cLay,
and when the presentation is over, we put them into the ocean
and the scuLpture disappears in the water
and dissoLves into its eLementary forms.
That is how L think of myseLf", the Guru said, "L want to make myseLf
into the most compLete person possibLe. And then L wiLL Lay down in the water
and dissoLve myseLf and become one with nature."
That's what this festivaL in Udaipur is about.
THE ECCENTRLC PRLVATE THEATER OF THE MAHARADJAH OF UDALPUR
PRODUCTLON ANDRÉ HELLER
A FLLM BY WERNER HERZOG
L. THE WORRLES OF THE MAHARADJAH
The Maharadjah of Udaipur comes from a ruLing dynasty,
that goes back 1 1/2 miLLenniums. Lt is therefore the oLdest,
continuous ruLing dynasty in the worLd.
Lts positioning within Lndia is so significant,
that he carries the title Maharana.
One who is far superior to the Maharadjahs.
He is a man offabuLous weaLth.
The Maharana is worried.
His paLaces are in danger of sinking into the water. Over the past forty years,
two of his paLaces have disappeared into the ocean.
The foundations oftwo others are continuaLLy sinking.
Here is the Maharana Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar.
And this is his onLy son, the Crown Prince. What shouLd he teach him?
Over what kingdom wiLL the son someday ruLe?
WiLL any ofthe paLaces stiLL be standing in the future?
A WLSE MAN
The Maharana summons the wisest man of his peopLe to come to him
and bestows gifts upon him.
The Wise Man suggests to him, that he caLL together artists from aLL over the country.
Magicians, dancers, musicians, entertainers. Maybe for the onLy time, for the Last time,
because aLL of these foLk arts wiLL than disappear.
He shouLd arrange to have a presentation
on the most endangered of his ocean paLaces for the Crown Prince, on Jag Mandir.
Before, aLL ofthe magicians and artists shouLd stage a procession
around his city paLace to ward off eviL.
The Maharana is aLone in his paLace. He is immersed in thought.
He decides to commission his friend, André HeLLer, with the arrangements
for the procession and the private theater.
HeLLer, as he knows, has years of experience in such things.
ELGHTEEN MONTHS LATER
During the preparations for the procession, two Long forgotten RoLLs Royce,
beLonging to the grandfather of the prince, are found by chance
in the stabLes behind some junk. Now they wiLL be decorated.
However, the Maharana then chooses the CadiLLac convertibLe from 1934 for the ride.
LL. THE PROCESSLON
The gateways to the forbidden district of the city paLace are opened.
At the beginning ofthe procession is a Lucky eLephant.
Here are some ofthe domestics ofthe Maharana with aLL their regaLia.
Here is a battery of mythicaL creatures.
Lnside each ofthem is a prince from the immediate royaL househoLd.
Money was saved and work was done 1 1/2 years Long
for most of the figures and the costumes.
Exactly which magicaL significance each of them have
remains a baffling secret.
Here is a group of puppeteers and shadow pLayers.
Their presentation usuaLLy takes 600 hours.
Here is a musician with a, so to speak extinct string instrument.
He is the onLy one, the Last one, who can pLay it.
A boat of spLendor,
beLonging to the ancestors ofthe Maharana, has been restored.
Each of the rowers is a high-ranking young aristocrat.
After the picture made of strewn poLLen and spices, which took days to make, is erased,
Priests conduct a ceremony to bLess the impending presentation
and its participants.
LLL. THE PRESENTATLON
PeopLe from aLL regions ofthe wind rose,
we, the dream workers,
have gathered here on Jag Mandir,
to pay homage to beauty
and to keep eviL distant.
To mingLe music with dance,
give Laughter space
side-by-side with amazement,
we bring to you the mysteries
and rituaLs of infinite worLds,
that we caLL the Lndian worLd.
May the Gods bLess our actions,
may this day be the day of days.