Feb. 8: Colonial history dominated the world of artistic practices for the longest time, and post colonialism had its moments in the major part of early 21st century.

Now, however, the world is shrinking in terms of geographical boundaries and frontiers, so is it time for a farewell to post colonialism? This was the subject of discussion on the second day of the CIMA Awards: International Symposium, between Professor Yuko Hasegawa, the chief curator at the upcoming Moscow Biennale, and the art historian and director of the symposium, Alka Pande.

The speakers explored the roots of "glocalisation" and the path leading to it; Hasegawa, especially, showed the shift from a post-colonial world to a more global one, through a unique study. "The title for the main project at the Moscow Biennale is Clouds Û Forests, a proposition at a time of crisis to instigate the establishment of new relationships in our world," said Hasegawa.

"Broadly stated, our environment - natural, social, psychological and informational - is transitioning away towards a crisis-like situation." In this crisis, she said, it is important to produce the originality required to understand our situation anew. Embracing the subjectivity of the individual has led to the emergence of cloud tribes and forest tribes.

Each tribe, she said, is unique and has its own idiosyncrasies. These creative tribes have been moving away from the forests and reassembling on the Internet or the cloud space. As clouds are created from forests, new media become personal spaces, creating new life in new technologies of all kinds. At the same time, young cloud tribes tend to return to the groundhe forest to look for their cultural roots. This movement in two directions creates a new, circular eco-system, which changes the existing system of art, environment and society and moves it from the two-dimensional sphere to spaces of animation and performance.

Hasegawa illustrated her points by showing the audience examples of artwork that approach the subject of ecosystems and a shared world in different ways. Included in the list were the Japanese fashion designer, Rei Kawakubo, the American visual artist who works with bio materials, Marina Zurkow, and Gauri Gill and Rajesh Vangad. As Alka Pande observed, the same concerns of post-colonialism - class, gender and hybridity - are used to move into spaces of science, technology and animation.

Is there a changing ecosystem of art in India? "Yes, there is," said Hasegawa. "India is culturally and artistically rich, and people have open, spiritual minds. I see a beautiful circulation between the 'cloud' space and the 'forest' space. This, to me, is very modern."