Art & Culture

Muses by the Mandovi

The ninth edition of Serendipity Arts Festival tells stories through different disciplines

Abhilasha Ojha | 11 Dec, 2024

Terra Grove by Vinu Daniel

Against the bright blue skies, noon white light, and numerous tall trees, Vinu Daniel’s art installation in terracotta, almost swirling like a giant serpent, becomes an immediate invitation into comfort and calm. The semi-cylindrical red guna tiles when assembled create a natural canopy of shade to become an extension of the natural surroundings, evoking a sense of harmony with nature. Called Terra Grove, the work shows the scope of architectural art installations in public spaces that can be both, responsive and sustainable.

Terra Grove, which will show at the ninth edition of Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa this year (December 15-22, 2024), is just one example of how art and architectural practices can create nurturing spaces to foster connection and reflection. The work, situated on Goa’s Miramar beach, is meditative—imagine sitting here and listening to the sounds of the waves and enjoying the earthen canopy.

Serendipity Arts Festival is South Asia’s largest multidisciplinary festival, which covers visual, performing, and culinary arts by showcasing a gamut of workshops, masterclasses, film screenings, exhibitions, conversations, and much more. Says Smriti Rajgarhia, director, Serendipity Arts Foundation, “Art is the best nonverbal method to communicate a situation, which can then be interpreted variously. Our public festival, then, is a platform where individuals can express themselves through artistic practices.”

Besides artists expressing themselves through their art, the idea of the festival, according to Rajgarhia, is for viewers to respond and engage with the art on display. For this year’s edition, there are 14 curators in various practices, including visual arts, music, dance, theatre, craft practices, photography, textile, culinary arts etc. Says Rajgarhia, “Within the artistic disciplines, we are always trying to offer something new so that the scope of conversation surrounding various issues related to a people, society, accessibility, inclusion, all of these and more get addressed.”

This year’s edition also offers a tribute to Hanif Kureshi, artist and founder of St+art India Foundation, who died two months ago after battling cancer. The festival will also pay homage to designer Rohit Bal. For the record, Serendipity Arts Festival has, for the first time, introduced a luxury boutique marketplace promoting sustainable fashion by select Indian brands.

There’s also Gulammohammed Sheikh’s curatorial tribute to fellow artist and friend late Bhupen Khakhar, which promises to be an exhibition worth seeing. Bhupen in Goa with over 150 artworks including paintings, drawings, ceramic plates, and sculptures from the founding member of the festival and chairman of Hero Enterprise Sunil Kant Munjal’s private collection, the Swaraj Art Archive, will give a glimpse into the extraordinary artistic journey of Khakhar, one of India’s leading modernists.

Serendipity Arts Festival, which began its innings in 2016, has now grown into an important annual event in multiple venues in Panjim, Goa, capturing the imagination of thousands of visitors arriving from all over the world. In 2023, there were over 150 events in which over 1800 artists from various disciplines had participated with an estimated four-five lakh visitors arriving for this seven-day festival.

A key reason for the festival’s acceptance by viewers, according to Rajgarhia, is that it gives complete autonomy to the curators without any interference in what and how they want to experiment. In her view, India’s diversity through various art practices is shown cohesively because curators from the same art practices but different influences manage to create a sense of vibrancy.

In this year’s edition, for instance, music curators Zubin Balaporia and Bickram Ghosh are starkly different in their artistic practice with the former’s influence being rock and the latter’s influence deriving largely from Hindustani classical music. Balaporia is a member of Indus Creed, one of the pioneering contemporary Indian rock bands that promoted the independent music scene in India. Ghosh, on the other hand, is one of India’s most influential tabla players, a pioneer in experimental fusion music who has performed with sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar for over a decade. “When experts from very different artistic influences converge, audiences can look at different spectrums of artistic practices in the country,” says Rajgarhia.

Ehsaan Noorani, who was part of Serendipity Arts Festival’s edition in 2022, bringing in various bands from the northeastern parts of India, says, “A mainstream platform such as Serendipity Arts Festival is a boon for many artists and bands that have a lot of talent and potential but still require a pan-India representation.”

One of the highlights in the music category this year is River Raag, a sunset cruise featuring classical music performances while viewers enjoy the music against the setting sun and cool breeze as they set sail across the Mandovi River. There’s also a tribute to the legendary music composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal with many from the duo’s original orchestra performing their hit tracks.

In the case of visual arts, curators Veerangana Solanki and Thukral and Tagra come with very different artistic experiences with the former looking at spatial art and the latter engaging more in tactile arts. Having been associated with Serendipity Arts Festival since the pandemic (two editions of the festival were held online), Solanki says that her curatorial practice for the festival continues to evolve from what she’s done in the previous editions. “How do we think of sound and images and what does it mean to touch, feel, hear, and look at artworks? The skin can get goosebumps by listening to a sound that impacts you. Isn’t that touch too?” she asks through her curation that brings together soundscape artists, musicians, and even architects.

While the festival is now seen as an important annual event across the globe, it has become significant in that it will make its debut in Birmingham, UK, next year. With this, the festival gets its status as a multicultural global event that will now be staged on foreign soil as well. The festival will be hosted in historic venues such as the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham City University, among others.

Smriti Rajgrahia, Director, Serendipity Arts Foundation & Festival

“Within the artistic disciplines, we are always trying to offer something new so that the scope of conversation surrounding various issues related to a people, society, accessibility, inclusion, all of these and more get addressed,” says Smriti Rajgarhia

Elizabeth Yorke, one of the curators of this year’s edition of the festival, says that it’s to the credit of Serendipity Arts Festival that “cuisine has found its status as culinary arts”. A professional chef, she is the co-founder of Edible Issues with Anusha Murthy, a food systems collective fostering thought and conversation on the Indian food system through public participatory events, research projects, meetups, and more.

This year, Edible Issues has 30 different projects, including performances, workshops, masterclasses, nature walks, and excursions, besides talks and exhibitions related to food. There’s Cookbook Chronicles: Reading Recipes, for instance, which stresses that recipes are more than just instructions, and can become memory markers in that they can unearth stories of the past, engage in personal histories, and through cookbooks create a much-needed literary narrative and dialogue.

There’s also Sri Vamsi Matta’s Come Eat with Me, a 90-minute performance that explores the relationship between caste and food while sharing a meal. Focusing on Dalit cuisine, the piece begins with personal stories and oral histories about food in Matta’s household and community. Through this, she questions issues related to caste, oppression, grief, and how coming together through food can create an impact. Many of the projects related to culinary arts, in fact, are community centric. Then there’s Nectar: Embodying the Critical Role of Bees in Food Systems by Sugar and Space, a Mumbai-based creative agency dedicated to transforming the way we perceive food every day. Founded by green building certified architect Jashan Sippy, this immersive exhibit creates an edible tablescaping model wherein the audience can move around, engage, and taste food while getting informed about the urgency of our climate crisis through the importance of bees in pollination. “Food is always rooted in community,” says Yorke, explaining why most of the culinary arts projects are immersive and interactive.

Much like culinary arts, Serendipity Arts Festival has also given textiles their rightful place in mainstream arts practice. This year, it brings art and design collectives such as No Borders, V’aarsa, Devrai Art Village, and sā Ladakh, to showcase slow fashion through traditional weaving and embroidery practices. Called the Infinite Forest, the project explores craft forms and craftsmanship in contemporary forms and materiality through the mastery of artisans working with four different design collectives showcasing Dhokra art, jute work, and textiles. An ode to the numerous folk and tribal tales and mythical creatures mentioned in the folklore of indigenous tribes of India, the project looks at traditional motifs to pay tribute to Indian artisans and their textile crafts.

(Serendipity Arts Festival, runs at Panjim, Goa, from December 15-22)