The second day of Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 unfolded with an eclectic mix of contemporary jazz, nostalgic Motown celebrations, and thought-provoking visual arts, demonstrating the festival’s commitment to diverse artistic expressions across multiple venues in Panaji.
The evening’s musical programming at The Arena at Nagalli Hills opened with The Revisit Project, curated by Zubin Balaporia and Ehsaan Noorani. This innovative band demystified the complexity and rigor of jazz with their distinctive twist, combining solid groove, old school funk, and rhythmic jazz with pointed observations about life, love, and politics in India.
The night culminated with Motown Madness, curated by Zubin Balaporia—a high-energy celebration of the iconic sound that defined a generation, the concert took audiences on a journey through the soul, funk, and groove of Motown and far beyond. From Michael Jackson to The Supremes and Stevie Wonder, the evening promised rhythm, nostalgia, and musical magic.
Reflecting on the evening’s performances, Zubin Balaporia said, “Curating tonight’s lineup was about celebrating the sheer range of what music can hold — from the sharp, contemporary language of a band like The Revisit Project to the timeless joy and emotional memory of Motown. Each performance offered a different doorway into rhythm and storytelling, yet they met on the same ground of connection and shared energy.”
At the Captain of Ports Jetty in Old Goa, the Barge installation continued to offer unique evening experiences. The Silent Film Screening by Aldona Video Club transformed the floating venue into an intimate cinema space. The Aldona Video Club collective interrogates cinematic representation through a deliberate exploration of media boundaries, where traditional narrative structures are simultaneously honoured and deconstructed.
Across the festival venues starting from 14th December, exhibitions will be open to the public to captivate the artistic minds of the audience. Multiplay 02: Soft Systems, curated by Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra at the Directorate of Accounts, will serve as a sandbox for collective experiences where multiple minds will be converged within a structured framework to nurture care, inclusion, and moments of respite.
The exhibition will feature works by artists including Chunky Move (supported by Asia TOPA, Arts Centre Melbourne and Creative Australia), Jayasimha Chandrashekar, Alke Reeh, Bwanga Kapumpa, and Teja Gavankar, inviting visitors to model clay portraits in the dark, listen to the sounds of trees and birds, do book massages, and rest for resistance.
Speaking about the curation of Multiplay 02: Soft Systems, Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra commented, “Multiplay02, soft systems is a tender constellation. Each of these practices operates as a soft system: adaptive, human, and open-ended. They hold space rather than occupy it. They invite rather than instruct. They reveal that participation is not merely an activity; it is a relationship. Together, this group builds an exhibition that breathes, counsels, illuminates, moves, questions, and cares. Multiplay becomes the ground where these distinct sensibilities meet and intermingle, a sandbox of collectivity where knowledge grows through touch, attention, rhythm, and generosity.”
The Culinary Odyssey of Goa at Art Park, curated by Odette Mascarenhas, will offer an exploration of Goan cuisine through five traditional kitchens—Hindu artisans, Muslim descendants (Bijapur dynasty), Gaud Saraswat Brahmins, Indo-Luso influences, and Christian descendants– each offering a distinct culinary identity shaped by spice and history. The project will feature tastings centered around five key ingredients: turmeric, kokum, black peppercorn, tamarind, and star anise, inviting visitors to interact with ingredient pods and hear stories narrated by the curator.
Reflecting on the project, Curator Odette Mascarenhas said, “Curating this project was a way to honour the many influences that have shaped Goan cuisine across centuries. Our food carries memory, migration, and everyday ritual, and I wanted visitors to experience how these traditions continue to live through taste. For me, Goan culinary heritage is a storytelling practice — one that connects our past to the present with every plate.”
Urban Reimagined, curated by Ravi Agarwal at the Promenade, will present the clash of imaginaries of the ‘urban.’ The exhibition focused on waste as an essential residue of nature extractions and mass production, will act as a marker of caste and class. Featured works will include photographs by the late Vivan Sundaram, made possible through the courtesy of The Estate of Vivan Sundaram and PHOTOINK.
Speaking about Urban Reimagined, curator Ravi Agarwal said, “This exhibition asks us to look at the urban not as a neutral space, but as a site shaped by extraction, inequality, and the residues we choose to ignore. Waste becomes a witness here – to our aspirations, our excesses, and the deep caste and class structures that underpin the city’s everyday life. By bringing together works such as Vivan Sundaram’s photographs, the project invites viewers to rethink what the urban reveals when we look closely, and what it insists on hiding.”
At The Access Village in the Old GMC Complex, Therefore I Am—a confluence of seven artists whose lived truths of disability shape and enrich their creative practices, will be showcased. Working across diverse media from painting and sculpture to photography, video, performance, and digital media, artists will powerfully interrogate and traverse the shifting terrain of disability.
Reflecting on the diverse curation of the project, curator Salil Chaturvedi shared, “This exhibition emerges from the lived experiences of artists who navigate the world through the lens of disability, not as limitation but as a powerful site of creativity. Their works traverse vulnerability, resistance, humour, and truth, challenging how we understand the body and its possibilities.
Serendipity offers a space where these voices can be encountered with openness, reminding us that disability is not marginal – it is an essential part of our collective human story.”
Day 2 demonstrated the festival’s ability to weave together diverse art forms—from jazz and Motown to visual arts—creating a rich tapestry of experiences that celebrate India’s creative landscape while addressing contemporary social themes.
