Make a beeline for the Serendipity Arts Festival, India’s largest multi-disciplinary festival of arts, with over 120+ curated programmes, between December 15 and 23, in Panjim, Goa.
Maybe you have never heard of this but ‘Panjim’ literally means the island that never gets flooded. And that its neat grid layout lends itself inimitably to hosting a large festival. That’s what I learnt from Smriti Rajgarhia, Director, Serendipity Arts Foundation. And that’s why she keeps returning to Goa’s capital to host Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF), one of the largest multi-disciplinary festival of arts in the South Asian region.
Poster: Courtesy Serendipity Arts Foundation.
From plays to paintings, SAF to showcase it all in Goa
Spread across 10 venues, and after a two-year hiatus, SAF — in its fifth edition — will host 120+ curated programmes spanning performing, visual, culinary arts and crafts, as well as exhibitions and workshops.
- Curating the section on Craft, Pramod Kumar KG will highlight the world of specialist books on the art history of India through a uniquely immersive exhibition, and Anjana Somany will enliven the world of craft and its rich traditions of materiality through space-making.
- Helming the Theatre segment, Quasar Thakore Padamsee will showcase an eclectic selection of plays.
- Prahlad Sukhtankar will curate the important culinary quotient of SAF through community meals and a series of workshops to decode food.
- Bickram Ghosh and Ehsaan Noorani will curate Music, covering a multi-genre range of classical, folk, indie pop, and rock.
- Geeta Chandran and Mayuri Upadhya will put together classical, experimental, and contemporary dance performances and workshops.
- Curators Sudarshan Shetty and Veerangana Solanki (Visual Arts) will showcase filmmakers to operate and explore the post-pandemic transition from the virtual to the physical.
You’ll learn about ‘The Case of the Missing Vegetables’, hear your heartbeats in Shunya, know about Tandula, the ancient folk rice of India; stare at Indo-British paintings in colonial India; know of families through the Goa Familia Project; decipher Breaking the Fourth Wall; tap a toe to Lavani, the magic of clay pots and street drummers; discuss the future of storytelling; try your hand at a 16mm printing workshop…
Transcend boundaries with SAF in Goa
In addition to the core programming, many Special Projects have been lined up, including a collaborative exhibition between four galleries; a special archival exhibition by Dr Jyotindra Jain; an international collaboration between Rahaab Allana and Pascal Beausse (CNAP, France); an exhibition on NFTs; and film screenings curated by Harkat Studios. The list is endless and enchanting.
As is wont with SAF, the nine-day celebration will have no overarching theme but will bring together thousands to showcase cultural heritage and contemporary artistic idioms and address pressing social issues such as arts education and pedagogy, cultural patronage, interdisciplinary discourse, and access to the arts.
In its fifth year, SAF will continue to explore ways to enhance public engagement with the arts and making art and culture a part of everyday conversations.
“Serendipity Arts Foundation facilitates pluralistic cultural expressions, sparking conversations around the arts across the South Asian region. Committed to innovation and creativity, the aim of the Foundation is to support practice and research in the arts, as well as to promote sustainability and education in the field through a range of cultural and collaborative initiatives. Serendipity Arts Festival challenges the public at large to push beyond accepted notions and conventions in arts and culture,” says Rajgarhia.
SAF Goa: A conversation starter
According to Rajgarhia, SAF is not just about entertainment. She explains, “The festival will start conversations that have never been spoken of. That’s the purpose. The audience will remain participants even after the last tent has been unpegged and the last musical note falls silent.”
“In our attempt to grow the economy over the last many decades, the significance of India’s cultural heritage and its arts often gets missed. As a result, we have allowed the arts to decline. This festival showcases the many dimensions through which the arts and culture touch and enrich our lives,” says Sunil Kant Munjal, Founder Patron, Serendipity Arts Foundation.
“Through the many diverse programmes and events, we hope to get more and more people interested and engaged, in the process enhancing one of the most fascinating aspects of India’s true soft power,” he adds.
Catch all the SAF Goa action at these venues
- Old GMC and Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) Complex: Festival hub buzzing with a host of activities including exhibitions.
- Art Park, opposite Inox Goa: Music in the park along with a marketplace focussing on homegrown, green products as well as an interactive sound project and workshops for kids.
- Excise Building: Focal point of contemporary visual arts exhibitions with an emphasis on digital and video art.
- The Arena at Nagalli Hills Ground: Will come alive every evening with large stage dance performances and music concerts spanning the classical and contemporary genres.
- Samba Square: Craft heritage through a project on space making, as well as a space for box camera workshops.
- Old Post Office: Special archival exhibition and a Camera Obscura project.
- Multi-level Parking: Hip-hop.
- Santa Monica Jetty: A daily ferry ride along the Mandovi river for sunset concerts departs from this jetty.
- Unnamed Building, Altinho: Special site-specific, theatre project.
- All across Panjim: Public art projects will be dotted across venues in Panjim.
At a glance
Entry: Free | To register: Click here | For details on entry/exit points, ramp for physically challenged, accessible toilets: read here.
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