PANAJI
For years since its renovation, Panaji’s Old Secretariat has found little use for most part of the year. But come December 16, this centuries-old heritage building along with six other locations in the city will be the centre of attraction for the Serendipity Arts Festival.
Also called the Adil Shah Palace, the final touches on the building have been done ahead of the art and cultural festival that begins on Friday. Also included in the festival are Jardim Garcia d’Orta, the Promenade, Old GMC complex and courtyard, Kala Academy, Bandodkar ground and SAG ground.
Spread across a 1.8 km stretch along river Mandovi, these seven venues have been strategically chosen for their historic charm and a landscape that naturally lends itself to art, according to the organisers.
Design interventions, restoration projects and public art initiatives will transform these venues into a hub of cultural activity where over 40 commissioned projects comprising exhibitions, workshops and residency programmes will be showcased.
With its sloping tiled roofs, carved stone coats of arms and wooden verandahs, the stalwart secretariat will be the protagonist to the 1.8 km Mandovi stretch that will host projects like ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ aimed at facilitating interaction between artists from India and Sri Lanka. It will also house an exhibition ‘As We See Us’ that explores the work of 34 Indian photographers to see how contemporary Indian portrait photography deals with the messy and tangled inheritance that deeply permeates visual culture. ‘Collectors Conclave’ will also be held at the building keeping in mind the idea of archives, conservation and preservation of culture and history.
At the Jardim Garcia d’Orta, also called the Municipal Garden, the square will be reformed into an interactive space for audiences and will be witness to a distinct culinary exploration curated by Odette Mascarenhas, film screenings and social interactions. A culinary network meet will also be organised to help artists, curators and other festival goers socialize.
The Promenade will allow visitors the experience of getting lost within the narrow and intimately scaled streets of Goa with open air installations where participants can encounter a plethora of sensory experiences while moving to and fro between venues.
Kala academy will house exhibitions by Goan photographer Alex Fernandes that captures tiatr artists enacting ‘Goan Archetypes’ as well as a theatre sketch called ‘The Portuguese Passport’, performed by contemporary tiatr performers, curated by Anuradha Kapur and Lillete Dubey.
Old GMC complex and courtyard will feature a number of informative workshops and lecture demonstrations while the Bandodkar ground will be the venue for classical music and dance performances. SAG ground will be the host of an entertaining performance set in a circus tent titled ‘Talatum’ that will reinterpret Shakespeare’s The Tempest by adapting it to an Indian context and using circus and other subaltern forms of performance at this open ground.
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- Old Secretariat to host Serendipity Arts Festival from Dec 16-23
- Other locations include Jardim Garcia d’Orta, the Promenade, Old GMC complex and courtyard, Kala Academy, Bandodkar ground and SAG ground
- Over 40 commissioned projects comprising exhibitions, workshops and residency programmes will be showcased during the 8-day festival
