London, Dec. 6 :    London, Dec. 6:  In what is seen as a unique cultural experiment, some of Britain's most distinguished artists will be coming to India shortly to hold exhibitions, seminars and hopefully have an 'abrasive' encounter with fellow Indian practitioners and students of arts. The British team is being led by Gerard Hemsworth, 56, the prize-winning professor of fine arts at Goldsmith's College, London, where there are 50 applications from all over the world for every one of its 85 £ 9,500-a-year post-graduate places. There will be an exhibition in Calcutta from January 15-February 9 at the Centre for International Modern Arts (CIMA), which is partly sponsoring the experiment along with the British Council. The exhibition will travel to Delhi (Habitat Centre) in March and to Mumbai (Prince of Wales Museum) in April. The exhibition title is 'Sidewinder', which, according to the catalogue, is a term used by boxers and denotes 'an unexpected blow from the side, a blow that is outside the expected rules of engagement, a shock that needs to be accounted for'. Hemsworth said he went to India a year ago and helped select the Indian artists 'appropriate to this project' who will join their British colleagues for over a month of stimulating exchanges. The Indians include some well-known names: Jogen Chowdhury, based at Santiniketan, Atul Dodiya, Subodh Gupta, Suhasini Kejriwal, Bharti Kher, Kabir Mohanty and Ravinder Reddy. Hemsworth said: 'The project is one of discovery; not separating the two groups but bringing them together, regardless of their origin, so as to make sense of each other's ideas. How can we incite a dialogue?' The British team will arrive in Delhi, where it will hold a seminar on December 17-18. It will move on to Orissa where it will be joined by the Indian artists. The artists expect to celebrate New Year in Calcutta after arriving in the city on December 29. There will be also be seminars in Calcutta, as well as exchanges at 'open sessions' with art students in schools and colleges. Hemsworth hopes these will be 'abrasive' and that the Indians will not sit back and gawp at their British visitors. 'I hope they will make a contribution,' said Hemsworth. 'What this is not about is visiting artists going there to show off.' At the same time, in keeping with the spirit of the new multi-cultural, multi-ethnic Britain of today, he wanted to celebrate cultural differences. 'You don't want everything to end up like an airport lounge. You don't know what country it is till you read the sign. When people go to other countries what they pick up is exotica. We want to get beyond that.' It may be that contact with westerners will help Indians to understand why their art has yet to make the impact in the West that everyone desires. 'The answer is hard and complex,' said Hemsworth. 'There has been a tradition of Indian art existing for hundreds of years. There has been a confusion between art and craft. There was a whole period when India was looking to the West - it was Eurocentric. Post-Indpendence, it was asserting its own identity. Now, there is a whole generation of Indian artists who don't feel obliged to fight the battles fought 40 years ago. It is hard to make a comparison with Britain. Perhaps India is not quite as cosmopolitan.' Hemsworth got the top prize worth £ 25,000. at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, the biggest exhibition of its kind in the world.