For any creative project to succeed, requires thumbs up from an audience. But for young creative folk just starting out, finding a platform that enables them to reach an appreciative audience can be quite the challenge. And while social media and the growing popularity of flea markets in the state have helped these new artists gain a following, Laila Vaziralli believes that they deserve their own physical permanent space too. And thus the idea of The Village Studio Goa was born.
The founder of the popular flea market Kitsch Mandi which did events in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi etc,Vaziralli always loved dabbling in art since she was a child. After doing her school in Valley School, Bangalore where her love for art really took shape, she went on to study photography at the London School of Art. Following this she taught art in a school, curated a few art projects and generally immersed herself in the art world in every way she could.
Kitsch Mandi, was born as an experiment in 2011 as a way of creating a space for upcoming artists to widen their reach and also enable them to interact with their audience in a more casual setting. Over six years, flea markets were held in different cities around the country and the market was also a part of festivals like Sunburn, Mad Festival Ooty etc. Alongside this, she also ran Junta, which was a community of emerging artists.
" When I moved to Goa, about a year and a half ago, I felt that I needed to bring this kind of platform for the emerging artists community into a permanent space," explains Vaziralli. "Also, I found that the art community here was quite niche. While there are platforms and spaces here, a lot of them are quite intimidating for young artists. They are either very conceptual or gallery oriented where you need to have a good body of work to exhibit. But when you are just starting out, and you have just ten pieces, sometimes you just want to know what the audience thinks. So I was looking for a casual art space for learning which was meant both for kids and adults."
Done with the big city life for the time being at least, Vaziralli began planning The Village Studio only about five months ago. " I'd never thought about this kind of a venture before. I guess Goa inspired me!" says the vivacious artist.
Luckily for her, finding a space was not too hard. "I was passing by this place just down the road from where I live and found it shut. The owner lived just opposite, so there weren't too many difficulties in that respect," she says. She's had a bit of problem these last few days though. "Because it's Ganesh, all my workers have now disappeared!" she chuckles.
The new studio will have a number of different activities within its premises. "There will be a space for art workshops and in fact we already have a few in the lineup like a block printing and screen printing workshop. These won't be all art based. There will be things like chocolate making too. So it will all be around the creative learning aspect," informs Vaziralli. The studio will also have a cafe with an all day breakfast concept. Above the cafe, on stilts, there will be two art room that can be rented out by people to be able to enjoy a peaceful and creative setting. These can also be given out to the artists who want to come over and stay. Apart from this, the studio will also have a shop for emerging artists to showcase their works. Also, in the near future, they hope to be able to sell art materials.
"We will also be having a flea market at the studio once a month, in addition to letting emerging artists do their shows. There will also be music gigs etc. However, our space will be an all day studio only. In Goa, a lot of events happen only at night but we are happy to go to bed by 10," says Vaziralli laughing. While the workshops etc will be during the day, their gigs and shows will be held mostly during the weekends .
Vaziralli also admits that the response from artists here in Goa has been quite encouraging.
In fact, she has already begun planning collaborations with emerging Goan artists like Nimi, a ceramic artists who is into miniature clay work and will be putting her work at the studio. Another one is the line up is on wall murals.
"A lot of artists are still not getting their due because it is still very niche. Audiences also are not able to access art in a casual way. A lot of art spaces are very intimidating and so people are not encouraged to go there as they think that they won't understand anything or that it is too highly priced. But casual spaces like these encourage audience interaction and it doesn't appear so tedious," she says. "Also, it is not just about going and looking at art, but people also learn and experience it."
The Village Studio Goa will have a grand opening on September 3 between 2- 7.30 pm in Parra. The event will see The Jass B'stards from Delhi and Gautham Reddy from Bangalore providing some amazing music while a few emerging artists will also be showcasing their works. These include - Smriti Chauhan, illustration, Sonalee Tomar, canvas, Nimmy Joshi, ceramics and Laila Vaziralli herself who will be displaying her watercolour works. Kids can participate in some art workshops that will be held over the afternoon.
