The celebration of art, creativity, tradition, heritage and a dogged commitment to resolving societal issues through an innovative approach continued on the ninth and last day of the Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF) 2023 on Saturday.
On the final day of the sixth physical edition of the festival, the crowds rushed across its various venues – on the land and sea (River Raag, starting from Santa Monica Jetty) – to savour the last bite of its offerings.
Since 2016, SAF has been transforming India’s art landscape by offering its platform to artists and experts from different fields to expand their horizons. From theatre to dance, music, food, textiles and so many other forms of creative expression have been showcased at the cultural extravaganza. Over the years, the annual fest has gotten bigger, wider and more inclusive to bring more participants into its fold.
In striving to do so, SAF has created a space for the differently abled in the Access Lounge at the Old GMC Complex. This corner has been holding an outreach programme for people with special needs – ‘Senses’ – since the beginning of the Festival. The workshop has been curated by Siddhant Shah of Access for ALL.
‘Upcycle and Tie-Dye your T-shirt!’, one of the activities organised under ‘Senses’, saw participants turning their drab and white tees and tops into colourful pieces of art as they learned different tie-dye techniques.
At the Theatre, the audience bore witness to an electrifying performance by the Ouinch Ouinch Collective inspired by the Hype Call, a practice derived from the Krump culture. The performance ‘Ouinch Ouinch: Happy Hype’ had DJ Mullah mix urban Afro and hip-hop tunes while the collective gave it their all on stage.
The performance ‘Ouinch Ouinch: Happy Hype’ is supported by Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, the Embassy of Switzerland in India and Bhutan and boxout.fm.
Some distance away, at The Children’s Corner in the Old GMC Complex, where ThinkArts has been hosting ‘Young At Art’ programmes daily, the atmosphere was electric. The workshop, ‘Stories of the Sea’, attempted to ignite children’s imagination by encouraging them to trace the origins of objects that get washed up on the beach and tell their story by creating art using fishing nets and other objects.
As the children tried to demystify the objects found on the seashore, it was a different kind of exploration at The Studio in the Excise Building, where movement artist Dipna Daryanani asked adults to take a closer look at their bodies with a childlike sense of wonderment to understand and appreciate it better. Through her workshop ‘Hello Body’, designed for movers, dancers, actors, performers, educators and others, Daryanani tried to inculcate in participants a deeper love for their bodies.
At the Art Park, naturalist and plant lover Dr Maryanne Lobo educated her audience on the medicinal virtues of local plants. ‘Plant Walk’, an activity that was part of Mercado (meaning market in Portuguese), instilled an awareness of the usefulness of native plants and how they maintained the biodiversity of the region.
After a day of artistic exhilaration at the venues around the Old GMC Complex, it was time for the SAF 2023 crowds to head to The Arena at Nagalli Hills Ground for an evening soaked in music. On Saturday, Pune-based band Easy Wanderlings warmed up the audience for a musical evening with soft melodies of soul, pop and folk music.
The crowds swayed to the wide genre of musical composition rendered by Easy Wanderlings, whose soul-funk EP (extended play) ‘Caught in a Parade’ was rated as the best Indian EP in 2022 by Rolling Stone Magazine.
Then came the finale of SAF 2023’s musical journey with the Grammy-nominated Indian playback and independent singer Shilpa Rao taking the stage and sending the crowd into a frenzy. Popular Bollywood numbers – Tose Naina, Khuda Jaane, Malang and Ghungroo – filled the evening air.
Shilpa Rao rang down the curtain on SAF 2023 as she belted out the last song and the crowd dispersed, bidding goodbye to this year’s Festival. And with that, SAF 2023 hit the pause button on the Festival in anticipation of returning in 2024 – same time, perhaps more places – between December 15 and December 23.
The 2023 edition has several project and institutional partners, such as Institut Français (India), the British Council, Boxout, Japan Foundation, Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council, Sampad, Paper Boat Collective, Art South Asia Project, JCB Literature Foundation and more.
