Get ready to experience the fifth edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival ,which is bigger and better than ever before. This year, the participants will get a chance to witness over 120 plus projects and 500 artists across 14 venues of the festival.
The festival covers exhibitions, performances, workshops, public arts, talks and book launches.
BOOST TO THE CITY OF PANJIM
Speaking during a press conference on Monday, mayor of the Corporation of the City of Panaji, Rohit Monserrate, said, "A festival like the Serendipity Arts Festival adds to the fabric of the city. It helps support an entire economy, especially the tourism industry which is a crucial source of job creation in Panaji."
Besides the core programming, many Special Projects have been lined up, including a collaborative exhibition between 4 galleries; a special archival exhibition by Dr Jyotindra Jain and Jutta Jain Neubauer; an international collaboration between Rahaab Allana & Pascal Beausse (CNAP, France); an exhibition on NFTs; and film screenings curated by Harkat Studios.
ACCESIBLE AND INCLUSIVE
The festival aims to give much-deserved exposure, a collaborative platform to produce a sustainable environment for contemporary arts and crafts and to highlight the shared cultural heritage of South Asia by building a strong alumni network of artists across the globe.
The director, Serendipity Arts Foundation and Festival, Smriti Rajgarhia said, “We are excited to be back in Goa for the 5th physical edition of the festival. We have made sure that the festival remains accessible and inclusive to all. Our curators have put up a great line-up of projects from across Goa and the South Asian region that would place Panaji on the global art map, as the host of the biggest art hub in the world, and we are inching towards that with each edition.”
FREE SHUTTLE SERVICE
The Serendipity Arts Festival, this year, has free shuttle services running across venues, for ease of conveyance. Also, if one needs medical attention, there will be first aid response teams at all venues of the festival.
To make the festival accessible to all, there will be several temporary ramps and rails that will be installed across sites.
ESG AND SERENDIPITY JOIN HANDS
The Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), this year has joined hands with the Serendipity Arts Festival. Speaking on the occasion, the General Manager of the Entertainment Society of Goa, said, “This festival gives the people of Goa exposure to the world of creativity, culture, heritage, various forms of art, and caters to all age groups -- from students to professionals -- and has contributed in its own way towards the State."
"This festival has helped in taking a steady step towards achieving our vision of making the State of Goa an art, culture and entertainment hub on the national and international platform," she added.
CRAFTS AND EXHIBITION
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. Anjana Somany will enliven the world of craft and its rich traditions of materiality through space-making.
Quasar Thakore Padamsee will helm the Theatre segment of the Festival that will showcase an eclectic selection of plays; Prahlad Sukhtankar will curate the important culinary quotient of the Serendipity Arts Festival through a series of workshops decoding food as we know it.
Bickram Ghosh and Ehsaan Noorani will curate Music with a wide range of live concerts 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 this year.
Visual Arts curators Sudarshan Shetty and Veerangana Solanki will showcase filmmakers who operate and explore the post-Pandemic transition from the virtual to the physical.
The Festival will also feature the works of the Serendipity Arts Foundation Residents and Grantees from 2021-2022.
The official hashtag for the festival is #MeetMeAtSerendipity.