biography
“motiroti's work is like being immersed in a wide-screen cinematic experience with surround sound. Their thoughtful and beautiful projects inspire and tickle the sensibilities of an exceptionally wide range of audiences...” Shekhar Kapur, Film Maker.
motiroti is an internationally acclaimed arts organisation led by Artistic Director Ali Zaidi. The company was founded in 1996 by artists Ali Zaidi and Keith Khan, who worked together from 1989 to 2004. Progressing ideas on identity, motiroti 's work is led by participation, new technology, and design. Working with a range of collaborators within visual and live art, multi-media, experimental theatre and socially engaged practice, motiroti deliberately blurs art-form specialism to encourage cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural dialogues.
In 1991 motiroti won its first 'Time Out London Dance and Performance Award' with Flying Costumes, Floating Tombs. This extravagant spectacle on transference of cultures embodied the company's core values, and brought together visual arts, music and dance, featuring hundreds of performers.
What placed the Company on the world stage in 1993 was the creation of the first Bollywood Musical Moti Roti Puttli Chunni, which also received a 'Time Out London Dance and Performance Award'.
Since then, motiroti has produced a wide range of high profile commissions including Celebration Commonwealth in 2002, a project celebrating the Queen's Golden Jubilee produced with the Commonwealth Institute, Helen Denniston Associates and 4,000 artists from across the world.
motiroti and New York based collaborators, The Builders Association, received a 2004 OBIE Award for Alladeen, a cross-media performance piece inspired by the call centre industry, new technologies and globalism (presented in London at the Barbican among other venues).
Projects are rooted in and develop from social engagement. Collaborations include the Bangladeshi and Somali communities in Brick Lane for The Seed, The Root, the virtual community of the web for Reality Bytes and 1,600 young people across the UK for Build at Tate Modern.
Past partners include international festivals such as London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) and Romaeuropa; and galleries and arts centres ranging from the South Bank Centre, Serpentine Gallery and the Barbican in London, to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the Whitney Museum in New York and the National Gallery in Cape Town.
Developed collaboratively with New York's dbox, cutout, a video triptych about urban life and cultural identities in the 21st Century world. Launched at the ICA, London in October 2005 the single screen version cutout II was presented on BBC screens in prominent public spaces nationwide.
In August 2006, the multi-site arts project Priceless merged the voices of individuals and institutions in surprising ways through audio-visual portraits and installations. Commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery, the Exhibition Road Cultural Group and Platform for Art, Priceless was developed in collaboration with leading artists, nine partner institutions and over 250 people.
In September 2006 the multi-sensory promenade event Light it!, transformed Myatt's Fields Park in South London, and attracted over 3,000 people. This was the first in a series of annual events produced in collaboration with home, aimed to engage with local communities and bring life to the park, reinforcing the major local regeneration. This autumn, Harvest it! will celebrate the bounty of nature in the heart of the city.
Projects in development include 360°, a three-year programme of exchanges that will bring to light a contemporary picture of the cultural dynamics between Britain, India and Pakistan. Sixty films, several international artists residencies, numerous publications and a new collaboration will bring artists together to explore the role that art can play in shaping communication and insight, across boundaries of culture and geography.
motiroti also disseminates ideas on diversity of practice and culture, and is involved in learning and development programmes.
motiroti is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity.
