One of the largest multi-disciplinary arts festivals in South Asia, the Serendipity Arts Festival’s sixth physical edition is all set to kickstart from Dec 15 in Panjim, Goa. The gamut of programming centres around visual, performing and culinary arts including music, dance, visual arts, craft, photography and theatre among others. Spread across different venues, the nine-day festival will feature over 150 events and works of more than 300 artists. A team of ten curators and 15 curators for special projects have tried to ensure that there is something for everyone on a daily basis.
More than anything else, the festival is a celebration of diverse artistic practices and creations. Says Director of Serendipity Arts Foundation & Festival, Smriti Rajgarhia, “We returned to the physical edition last year after two years of holding the festival online due to COVID-19. Now that the world has gone back to normal, we have become a lot more ambitious with our programming and venues. From video art to AI to archival works, we are really going out this year,” she says.
With so many events to look forward to, ask Rajgarhia what she is most excited about and she says, “I am very excited about Veeranganakumari Solanki’s curation in the Visual Arts section. She is working with artists who have used sound and image, breaking the myth that visual arts only mean paintings on a wall. It is about creating an experience. The other thing I am excited about is bringing artists from India and Switzerland for ‘Time as A Mother’, to talk about climate change and sustainability. When you do partnerships like this, it helps to understand the perspectives of different people living in different parts of the world.”
In the run-up to the nine-day festival, SAF also launched Beyond Serendipity which is all about showcasing productions staged in earlier editions of the festival in various Indian cities. Performances were held in Puducherry, Kolkata and Delhi. In October and November, they also held an initiative called Out and About in which plays were staged in 12 local Goan homes. “We want to take theatre to people’s homes and I am glad to say that a number of people were willing to open their doors for us,” she adds.
Like every year, prominent names from diverse artistic fields have associated themselves with SAF 2023 and curated performances, plays, workshops, talks, exhibitions and more for the discerning audience. Former Bombay Canteen chef Thomas Zacharias who founded his own platform The Locavore is curating the Culinary Arts section with his team and looking forward to the response to the programming from the audience. “I have been following and attending the festival for many years now and it has been wonderful to see how it’s evolved over the years. The whole idea behind making these art forms and ideas available and accessible to the max number of people is very special. A lot of the ideas and values that Serendipity has resonates with us at The Locavore which is about using food as a medium for making an impact, introducing people to new ideas, changing perceptions and breaking stereotypes,” he says.
Expect to find yourself in The Village which is all about experiencing the important aspects of a traditional village in Goa with stalls, community kitchen, live workshops, food and music in an experiential way. Among the plethora of events in the section, attend The Locavore Shuffle and engage in conversations around food with like-minded strangers, a workshop on Feni appreciation and learn more about Indian cheeses from Chef Aditya Raghavan.
The Theatre section curated by Quasar Thakore Padamsee is not short on ideas and formats. Some of the topics range from gender abuse to ancient Dalit poetry, traditional grandmother tales and more. UK-based playwright Henry Naylor’s award-winning play Afghanistan is Not Funny, Jump which unfolds on the rooftop of a building, and abstract performance ASMR which raises profound questions about our core being and desires, are some interesting gems from this section.
Musicians Ricky Kej and Bickram Ghosh get together for the Music section which includes paying a tribute to the late music composer RD Burman with The World of Pancham 2.0, Folk Music Reimagined which brings a fresh twist to folk music and River Raag, a unique sunset cruise featuring classical performances. From big-scale productions to small-scale, first-time collaborations, age-old forms brought to light and new-age dancers, the Dance section by curators Mayuri Upadhyay and Geeta Chandran is buzzing with events. Manthan: A Confluence of Kaavad Katha & Mohiniyattam is a performance that unites two ancient traditions. marrying contemporary elements with classical forms, Sheejith Krishna fuses Bharatanatyam, poetry, music, dance, and theatre in Don Quixote: A Bharatanatyam-Theatre Production.
The Visual Arts curators for this edition are Veeranganakumari Solanki and Vidya Shivadas. Says Solanki, “I have always been interested in how artists use the image as an arrival and departure point with various mediums. The brief I gave to the 15 artists from South Asia was thinking of sound and image in a synthesis so you can’t isolate the two. Almost all artists are working in a way where it requires the audience to step in and interact. The artwork is so immersive that it becomes an experience in itself,” she says.
Curators Anjana Somany and Sandeep Sangaru have taken care of the Crafts section, shining a spotlight on craft installations and visual exhibitions exploring the versatility of materials, forms and art. Offering visitors an insight into India’s rich cultural heritage, Crafted Expressions: Embodied Traditions in The Indian Performing Arts is an exhibition that shines a spotlight on how craftsmanship enriches the auditory and visual realms of the arts. At another venue, the exhibition Bamboo: A Way of Life aims to immerse visitors in the daily experience of living and working with bamboo.
Over their eight editions – two held digitally – Rajgarhia believes that what SAF has achieved is bringing some sort of method to the madness. “Our biggest strength is that we treat all artists the same, whether they are established or emerging,” she signs off.
Serendipity Arts Festival is from December 15-23 in Panjim, Goa. For more information on the programming, head to www.serendipityartsfestival. com
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