serendipity, the word itself means, a happy or beneficial meeting ,by chance. And while the word itself leaves a lot to destiny, the sernedipity art festival held on the 16-23 of December left very liitle to chance. It had been in the plan for months, and the preparations showed in the coming together of various arts the music, food, dance, photography, paintings, theatre all was celebrated with much gusto , And while I was unable to partake from everything on offer , due to my busy schedule, these are a few glimpses of the serendipity festival.
My interest is two pronged, a I want more people to experience these festivities, because if these become popular and lucrative enough for the organisers, then this will be a regular feature in my city of Panjim, which is truly my city of Joy, and b. i hope my son , the next generation grows up in this thriving environment of the arts.
As a doctor, I may be a practitioner of the sciences, but I have always been a follower of the arts as well.
Here is a photo album with captions .
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| a life size mirrored elephant marked the entrance to one of the venues. we have all heard of the 6 blind men and the elephant, this was the first telling of the ophthalmologist and the elephant. |
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| the colourful matkas, another art installation reminded me of the sridevi and jeetender song and dance sequence. |
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| the art installations outside of Kalaacademy, the local art theatre of Panjim, paid homage to the characters from a typical Goan Tiatr, or goan plays. my favourite; the Goan who works abroad. :) |
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| the eyes , this face, is actually a painting! |
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| what medium would you use to depicct pain, and what to depict love? Does the unpredictable but flowing qualities of watercolours speak to your sense of whimsy, or do you crave the brilliance and vibrancy of acrylics and oils? |
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| i loved reading the captions under the paintings and pictures. this one especially is poignant. a muslim oohoto journalist speaks of the militant buddhists in sri lanka. Militant buddhists? that in itself was an oxymoron for me. |
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| the picture which accompanied the caption above. |
The three pictures above was a photo gallery of rape victims. graphic and gutwrenching were the depictions, while the pictures spoke volumes about their lives post the incident.
The above picture and caption was by far my favourite. The concept was to get ten photographs and have ten writers write a story or narration, depending on what they felt about the picture. A fascinating concept since I myself write stories , with three of my books published this year, write india stories , Mock , stalk and quarrel and shreyu and the musical farm. details of the photo stories and its curator are mentioned in the picture below.
But more about the picture you see on top. A few men dressed in white, typically politician looking men, obviosly in one of their agitated moods, everyone on the phone, possibly dealing with another national crisis. the caption though was from Alice in wonderland, " A Large rose tree, stood near the entrance of the garden ; the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them RED. " subtle satire on the state of affairs in our country. Simply brilliant.
The above and below pictures are from the roti, kapda makaan concept of essentials. View the pictures through charming old world, gramophonesque chal chitras. Find the changing trends of roti - food, kapda- clothing, and makaan- homes of India. again very well depicted, thoughtfully curated and aesthetically presented.
The terrace cafe, Perch which overlooked the 'encounter ' installation as well as the mandovi river, can in time become one of the hippest places for a meal, here is hoping. *crosses her fingers.
The evenings had many cultural events happening at various venues, all of them were free of cost, except for the circus, called Talatum. Talatum was an ambitious depiction of shakespeares Tempest in a circus format. considering the quality of exhibits at the museum at Adil Shah palace, we had high expectations from the circus. Unfortunately the narration was weak to almost absent, the scenes were sketchy and disjointed, and the costumes tacky, reducing the quality of the production. the girl who played Aerial had just a few screeches throughout the play, and it was only when she read out the vote of thanks did we realise she has such a sonorous pleasant voice, and clear english diction. clearly the play needs more work, but since it was the very first time it was being plaayed in India. It was worth appreciating.
The serendipity art festival had many firsts. And if I am to believe it all began in trying to resurrect the old secretariat, and the old summer palace of the muslim King 'Adil Shah' . Interestingly, before the Portuguese came to Goa, Goa was rulled by the muslims, and this 16th century palace with sloping roof is one of the oldest in panjim Adil shah palace. At the museum now resides a picture of the then palace and it's surroundings, and can you believe it, much of the buildings are still the same, there now is a petrol pump, where once there was a tree, but other than that, the striking resemblance of yesteryear Panjim, to current panjim is remarkable.
