Rasa Yatra (A Pilgrimage Into The Heart of India)

Foreword

A panorama of ethereal images with an innate spirituality that evokes a sublime, blissful experience engages you as you encounter Param Tomanec's Rasa Yatra photographs. With their focus on eternity, rather than a momentary reality, his photos offer you an inner journey, a pilgrimage beyond the obvious and the physical or bodily toward the meditative, spiritual, and blissful-: sat-chit-ananda.

The devotional iconography that is replayed visually by this artist suggests in-depth meditation, study, and research, which the artist confirms preceded his experimentation. About fifty carefully framed photographs and an art film in the collection feature some amazing portraits of people, pilgrims, and priests beside pristine sites, in engaging situations, or behind the scenes. Various primeval landscapes, sacred mountains, incessant waterfalls, and flowing holy rivers (some illuminated in moonlight or star light), live performances, temples, celebrations, and festivities that connect people with nature all figure in his work.

Param gave up a promising commercial career in films to live a monastic life and embark on a spiritual journey of self-discovery. The confluence of cultures that Param has encountered across Africa, Asia, and Europe is reflected in his current repertoire, with its meditative leanings and philosophical layering.

Param's empathy for the natural environment, cleaner air, and mother Earth figures prominently in his imagery. The beauty and bounty of nature resonate through his photo montage, which presents the world as a pilgrimage, where people come and go. But the earth and the environment, his work seems to urge, must be sustained for future generations. The characters and visuals he presents, remarkable for their spontaneity and soulful silence, and the artist's emotional rapport with his subjects and various situations, penetrate the viewer's innate feelings, beyond what the naked eye can see.

The artist uses fairly complex cinematographic neutral lights, density filtration and optics to explore the relationship between the time impression of moving and still images. His visuals evoke physical beauty and the soul of the image. Param tells me he spends hours on location, looking and waiting, till his eyes and mind meet with that of the subject. And they talk, trying to understand each other, before the photography really happens. What he captures then is not just the physical persona but sensitively photographed portraits, landscapes, mind-frames, scenes, and celebrations that transcend the obvious. The subject is figured holistically, with subtlety, soul, and character in place.

A multi layered mythology and intricately entwined narratives, featuring people and iconic landmarks, inundate Param's art-scape. Aesthetically rendered in amazing compositions and palettes, his photos call for nurturing nature and preserving the environment. His work invites you to meditate and penetrate deep within and beyond the surface, to soak in the image and celebrate life, while also doing some introspection. Param's Rasa Yatra takes one on a pilgrimage into the heart of spiritual India, a metaphor for sat-chit-ananda.

Preface

It is a delight to present RASA YATRA: A Pilgrimage into the Heart of India as the first temporary exhibit of the Museum of Sacred Art (MOSA). MOSA is nested in a picturesque Ardennes, Belgium and it has two main galleries in the Chateau de Petite Somme, also known as Radhadesh.

I launched the Museum in 2009. Since then its art collection has grown significantly. The collection has grown so significantly that today it offers close to 1600 pieces of Indian tribal, traditional and contemporary works, such as paintings, sculpture, film and photography celebrating the idea of devotion. A brand new MOSA gallery has been recently opened in Villa Vrindavana mansion, just five miles from the historic town of Florence in Italy to better serve the artworks.

Our photographer and filmmaker, Param Tomanec, is a talented artist with a unique vision. Throughout his work the viewer can discover the vibrant spiritual culture that endures in India. He reveals as well some of the major challenges India faces today as consequence of fast-paced, often forced modernization. Working with Param for the past several years, it has been for me a learning event, as he has the natural ability to make you see things you are used to see from a quite different yet coherent, enlivening perspective, which is an invaluable asset for the visual poet.

We are fortunate to have several distinguished writers contributing texts: Sushma K. Bahl, Joshua M. Greene and Silke Lange. I envisage for the show to travel to other museums and cultural centers worldwide. Rasa Yatra truly is an odyssey where the viewers can experience deep emotions as if one would visit such sacred places as an insider. I am happy that the Museum of Sacred Art can offer you a pilgrimage into the heart of India in this book.

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