M R Vishnuprasad is a poet and performance artist currently based in New Delhi. Vishnuprasad situates his art as a synthesis of writing, making and performing poetry through oral, textual and digital mediations to bring composed attention to the contemporary moment. Considering poetry as form and medium, and the possibilities of performance as poiesis he uses a range of experiments in his practice, such as Theory Fiction Act, Video Survey, Lecture Performance, Kalaripayattu Zoomorphism, Videopoetry, Spatio-Emotional Mapping, and Text Making. His interests include performance poetry, enaction, embodied knowledge, sensory studies and natureculture ecology. Highlighted by a critical interest in body traditions, as sites of epistemic and corporeal explorations, his research projects and performance repertoire explore how embodiment shapes the poiesis of knowledge and senses.
M R Vishnuprasad holds a postgraduate degree in Environmental Sciences and has conducted research in hydro-geology, and is currently pursuing his PhD degree in Theatre and Performance Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. For the past twenty-five years, he has been writing poetry in Malayalam, a South Indian language and credited with three anthologies. Since 2015, his poetry performances and art works have been shown in galleries, including Durbar Hall Art Gallery, Kerala Lalithakala Akademi, India (2022); Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi, India (2020 and 2019), KHOJ International Artists Association, New Delhi, India (2018); Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, New Delhi, India (2016). He was an actant in Five million Incidents (FMI-2020) conceived by Goethe Institut, New Delhi in collaboration with Raqs Media Collective.
M R Vishnuprasad holds a postgraduate degree in Environmental Sciences and has conducted research in hydro-geology, and is currently pursuing his PhD degree in Theatre and Performance Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. For the past twenty-five years, he has been writing poetry in Malayalam, a South Indian language and credited with three anthologies. Since 2015, his poetry performances and art works have been shown in galleries, including Durbar Hall Art Gallery, Kerala Lalithakala Akademi, India (2022); Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi, India (2020 and 2019), KHOJ International Artists Association, New Delhi, India (2018); Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, New Delhi, India (2016). He was an actant in Five million Incidents (FMI-2020) conceived by Goethe Institut, New Delhi in collaboration with Raqs Media Collective.
EDUCATION
PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies at SAA, JNU, New Delhi (2017-Present)
MPhil in Theatre and Performance Studies, SAA, JNU (2014-2016)
MSc in Environmental Sciences, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Kerala (2002-2004)
PERFORMANCES/TEXT WORKS
‘Tullal Poem’ (Poetry Performance), International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK), 2020.
‘Phone Call to Nowhere’ (A web-based Lecture Poiesis) Goethe Institute/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi, 2020.
‘Accidental Microbes and a Piece of Poem’ (Lecture Poiesis), Siddhartha Hall, Goethe Institute/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi, 2019.
‘Ing’ (Lecture Poiesis) KHOJ International Artists Association, New Delhi, India, 2018.
‘Chera’ (Lecture Poiesis) BC Gallery, Cochin, India, 2017.
‘Copywrite’ (Text works and collaborations), Art Gallery, Italian Cultural Centre, New Delhi, 2016.
PUBLICATIONS
'Embodiment of Pakshikolam: Performing the Molecular Human', Performance Research, Volume 25 (3), (2020)
Vishnuprasad et al; 'Factors affecting the environmental carrying capacity of a freshwater tropical lake system', Journal of Environmental Assessment and Monitoring. (2016)
Vishnuprasad and Shibin, 'Climate change and Climate Refugees in India: Policy options', Development vs Deprivation in the era of globalization (Book),
Eds. Dr. M K Saralamma and Dr. Manju S Nair, Serial Publications, New Delhi, 2012
‘Aanirachi’ (Malayalam Poetry), Krithi Books, Kerala, India (2013)
‘Rithukkalum Sree Budhanum’ (Malayalam Poetry), Fabian Books, Kerala, India (2008)
KEYNOTE ADDRESSES
'Embodying the Word: Performance and the Poem', Three-day National Webinar (2020 September 3,4,5) “Literature: Performance of/in Life'” conducted by Department of English, Government College Madapally, Vadakara, Kerala, India
'Changing Climates of Anthropocene: 'Poetics of Queering the Binary Machines', Student Conference (2020 March 4) ‘on Climate Emergence and Literary Theories’ conducted by Department of English, Kalindi College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India
INVITED LECTURES
‘Poetry, Performance and Indigenous Imagination’ Literary Camp conducted by Scheduled Tribes Development Department, Govt. of Kerala, India (2021)
‘Art and Ecosystem’ Monthly Talk Series conducted by Kerala Lalitha Kala Academy Art Gallery, Vailoppilli Samskrithi Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram, India (2020)
'Embodied Knowledge and Performance' Talk Series conducted by Dialectical Research Forum, Sri Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala, India (2020)
SEMINARS/CONFERENCES
'Permeable Edges of a Ritual Ecosystem: Thinking Through the Boundaries of Kottangal padayani' at International Federation of Theatre Research World Congress, Belgrade, Serbia 2018
‘The act of touching a ritual: Senses and surfaces in/of padayani’ International Seminar titled “Cultural studies of Senses” conducted by Dept. of Malayalam, Govt. Brennen College, Thalasserry, Kerala (2018)
‘Cinema and Poetry’, National Seminar, ‘Cinema and media’, Dept. of Languages, NMSM Govt. College, Kalpetta, Kerala (2018)
'Padayani Ecosystem: Embodiment of Ritual Rehearsals' National seminar on 'Theatre, Theory and Praxis: An Enquiry into Modern Theories of the Theatre and Drama' conducted by Department of English, Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur, Kerala, India (2015)
AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Fellow of Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India in the field of Indigenous Arts (2017-2019)
SBT Sahitya Puraskaram for Malayalam Poetry collection titled “Aanirachi” , 2014
Deshabhimani IV Das Puraskaram for Contemporary Malayalam Poetry, 2011