the goan I network
PANAJI
Goa’s capital earned an aura of the arts with the eight-day Serendipity festival kicking off amid star power and an array of exhibitions and interactive sessions bringing out Indian traditions in music, dance, theatre, craft and visual arts.
On day one, a visual arts exhibition ‘Look Outside the House’ held at the iconic Old Goa Medical College building was curated by Sudarshan Shetty.
At yet another iconic venue, the Adil Shah Palace which until two decades ago was the seat of power in Goa, an exhibition ‘The Conquest of the World as Picture’ offered critical viewing of popular Indian imagery at the turn of the twentieth century. It brings out how printing and mass circulation of images influenced belief and worship in India and even acted as a vehicle to shape up the independence movement.
A photography exhibition at the Adil Shah palace -- Imagined Documents and Urban Reimagined -- explored staged photography that flits between reality and fiction, with a focus on work that employs various strategies and techniques to tell a story.
For instance, artist Sahil Naik’s documenting of Curdi village tells the story of its way of life for just a few summer months of the year before it gets submerged near the Selaulim dam.
Naik has produced sculptures in conversation with four families to recreate that which was lost using personal archives and memory.
What lent the festival star power was the theatre section where actress Kalki Kochelin had eyeballs rolling at the INOX Courtyard.
Kochelin was in Sounding Vanya curated by Atul Kumar and directed by Rehaan Engineer, is an experimental piece which reinterprets the 120-year-old classic -- Uncle Vanya -- by Anton Chekhov by dismantling and rebuilding it and allowing it to sound differently.
‘Jamdani across New Horizons’ in the craft section at the Adil Shah Palace was curated by Pramod Kumar KG and encompassed a fresh approach
to making of Jamdani fabrics, both in weaving, choice of raw materials, patterns, designs and the end-product -- a finished garment.
Another session of interest was the Fired Material Design Interventions in Ceramics and Glass at the Old PWD building at Patto where Kristine Michael and her assistant Chandrika Grover curated an exhibition which uncovered a hidden narrative of transnational modernism in ceramics.
Artistic modernism in contemporary ceramic and glass in India was discussed in response to the growing interest and global recognition of non-western craft.
At the INOX courtyard, Leela Samson curated a project of Indian Classical dance -- The Landscape of Human Emotions -- which weaves together literature, music and dance.
A session on culinary art, ‘Chef’s Legacy’ was curated at the Old GMC, by Rahul Akerkar where James Ferreira and his cousin Glenda Fernandez demonstrated their unique breads called Fuggia and Chittiapp, along with two traditional dishes using the famous bottle masala.
In this series of Legacy Workshops, Chef Rahul Akerkar has invited some of India’s brightest, young “thinking” Chefs, and food-passionate people to share their vision and see how and where they are taking our rich legacy of cuisine, ingredients, herbs and spices.
In its fourth year, the Serendipity Festival of Arts is organised by the Serendipity Arts Foundation, a not-for-profit arts and cultural development Foundation that fosters cultural development and supports emerging artists across South Asia.
It is a festival of multi-disciplinary arts event held annually every December in Goa. Curated by a panel of eminent artists and institutional figures, the Festival is a long-term cultural project that hopes to instigate positive change across arts in India.
