(Centre) Smriti Rajgarhia, Director of Serendipity Arts and Serendipity Arts Festival along with (Left) Frank Hauschildt and (Right ) Andrew Roberts, the German art installers from Gallery neugerriemschneider.
THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The 9th edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival will be held from December 15 to 22 showcasing 1800 plus national and international artists through 200 plus projects, panels, workshops and public art interventions across 22 venues in Panaji. This is the biggest edition of South Asia’s largest multidisciplinary arts festival that will convert the capital city into a hub for artistic endeavours and creative pursuits for art enthusiasts.
The Festival is supported by the government of Goa, in partnership with the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) and the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), along with the Directorate of Art and Culture, Goa Tourism Department, Kala Academy Goa, Goa Forest Department and Imagine Panaji Smart City Development.
The venues will include the Art Park, the Excise Building, the Old GMC Complex, ESG Building, Santa Monica Jetty, Samba Square, Mala Pump House, the Arena at Nagalli Hills Ground, Kala Academy, Azad Maidan, Directorate of Accounts, Caranzalem Beach, Dona Paula Parking Lot and more, stated Smriti Rajgarhia, director of Serendipity Arts and the Serendipity Arts Festival.
Speaking to media in Panaji, Smriti shared that over the years, symbiotic relationships, collaborations, and partnerships have been at the heart of the festival journey, creating a multiplier effect for communities. The expert curators this year include Bickram Ghosh and Zubin Balaporia (music), Veeranganakumari Solanki and Thukral and Tagra (visual arts), Quasar Thakore Padamsee and Sankar Venkateshwaran (theatre), Geeta Chandran and Jayachandran Palazhy (dance), Elizabeth Yorke and Anusha Murthy of Edible Issues (culinary art), Kristine Michael and Sandeep Sangaru (craft) and Salil Chaturvedi will be heading the accessibility quotient.
AI interventions, curated by Mathieu Wothke (Somewhere Arts) and Joel Ferree (LACMA) will be prevalent across the visual, culinary, and performance disciplines. Additionally, special curators like Preethi Athreya (performance art), Comedy Wagon for stand-up comedy, Gaya Tideman for Music in the Art Park, Zainab Wani (Zequenx) for the B-Side Project, and Damian Christinger for Ghosts in Machines will also be a part of the festival. Key exhibitions such as Eternal Echoes: The Resonance of Heart with Heritage, curated by Helen Acharya at Azad Maidan, and Carbon, led by Jahnavi Phalkey in collaboration with Ravi Agarwal, promise compelling and thought-provoking experiences.
Goan artists and Goa based artists will have a platform where they can showcase their talent to be on the global art map and garner international acclaim, said the curator. The Goa Familia – Archive of Potential (Goan) Futures project, curated by Lina Vincent and Akshay Mahajan, also returns, offering a heartfelt exploration of Goan heritage through oral histories, photography, and archival materials. Assavri Kulkarni, Shankar Turi, Divesh Gadekar, Manashri Pai Dukle, Aldona Video Club, Bookworm Goa, Prashanti Talpankar and others are bringing their expertise to the festival.
