Amidst the culture jumble in Goa powered by the Serendipity Arts Festival, we caught up with with Smriti Rajgarhia, the director of the Serendipity Arts Foundation, the organisation behind India's largest multidisciplinary arts festival. Smriti tells us about the vision and the challenges of curating the Serendipity Arts Festival 2023, which is happening right now in Goa till the 23rd December. She also shares her insights on how art can make a positive impact on society, especially in the post-pandemic era. Read on to find out more about the exciting and diverse programming of the festival, which spans across visual, performing and culinary arts, and how you can be a part of this cultural extravaganza.
What were your initial conversations and thoughts around the festival for this year when you first started working on it?
We wanted to look at how artistic practices have grown. Like when we say we are doing visual arts…what does that even really mean? Now in today's day and age, in post covid, there's been so much development in the way people create art. Technology has started playing an important part. We've understood that it's not just the visuals, but there's sound, smell and there's taste even. Like how do you take that to the next level and how can art become a place for conversations to really happen. So we came up with these completely separate ideas and they coexist very well together.
I obviously wanted to look at sound and image, and I thought that was a really beautiful way of starting, , a new chapter for serendipity. It is the first time we have two women curators in visual arts which was amazing for us. But I feel all the conversations we had was about how do we support good talent, emerging artists and people who wanna be experimental with their practice, who want to use serendipity as an incubation ground to develop their practice. So a lot of the works are in progress and some have been made here. I'm sure they'll travel far and wide. And we are very proud of the mix the curators have created for us.
What do you think is like the role of art in today's time? And were you conscious of that when working for Serendipity?
I'm a true believer that art is really important because it's the only form of nonverbal communication. In today's day and age with Instagram and Facebook, words have found a different meaning. It doesn't allow you to reflect on your own self. It it encourages you to react. Art needs a reaction, but it also is a tool for reflection. What we've been managed to do this time is that every artwork needs a pause. It gives you that timeout. If you're going to Samba Square which has a bamboo installation, you sit down and reflect.
That is the role of art in society, to allow people to reflect and not react instantly. That's something that was quite constant for us. We wanted people to sit down. We wanted people to stay with themselves. They don't have to like the art, but they need to find that little pause in their lives. And what happens then is that you start developing your own discourse about society, and that's really important for progress.That's what's worked this year.
As an art lover, what sort of art do you do you engage with the most?
That’s a very difficult question because I can't play favourites. But something must move. What moves me is when people react to art more than the art itself. I mean, not taking away from the artists. But when I see smiles on people's faces, because my sensibility doesn't need to be somebody else's sensibility, but that universal language of a smile or a reaction is so enduring. That's why we do Serenity Arts Festival to be able to get that reaction from people… Good, bad or ugly. And that's very important for us. And it's also very different as to how someone is reacting to art. You could be thinking or feeling something completely different as opposed to the other person. Like there's a piece in Blue Carbon that we were sitting in PWD and this guy came and said, I love the dragon on the wall. And you're like, where is the dragon? But he took it as a dragon. You start looking at other people's perspectives. Often in life you become so self-obsessed that you stop listening to the other person when you have a conversation. The art of listening comes with the art of looking, the art of absorbing. And that's very important for me.
What have been your highlights of the festival?
Again very difficult to choose but I'll tell you my personal favorite. It's Sandeep Sangaru’s project called Bamboo Way of life. What he has been able to bring; material sustainability design, and a bunch of artists working together to create that beautiful installation is something everyone should see. It's got a sense of peace in it in a very crowded square of Panjim. You've got the Immaculate Church of Conception and you enter the tent and you realize that even a city can allow you to stop. And that's really special. The old PWD building is fabulous because we have all our international partners there. We have Ravi and Damien's curation time as a mother. We've got fields of forces by music which is very video based, but it's also spaces that allow you to stop and pause. Those are my top favourites. I would really encourage people to see the exhibition space at the old GMC.
What do you think is like the next big thing in art?
Infrastructure, building and arts is getting quite big. So many people and businesses feel the need to step in and create infrastructure. And that will change the trajectory of art making in India. So I'm really looking forward to the next 10 years to see how this initiative by various people like the Adanis, like Jindal and the Ambanis how they all are building the cultural centers. To see how those places becomes incubation centers for arts. There's a huge progress trajectory for practice in the coming years with infrastructure coming up.
Words Hansika Lohani
Date 22.12.2023