India’s smallest and most prosperous state, Goa is better known for its palm trees, beaches, and Portuguese colonial heritage than contemporary culture. Since 2016 however, its capital city Panaji has played host to the Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF), an annual event set over eight days in December. While India possesses countless festivals springing from a multitude of traditions and faiths, the SAF has been established as a pluralistic multi-disciplinary festival with a wide-ranging program intended to capture and cater to diverse demographics. Taking place at thirteen venues with over ninety projects, distinct disciplinary programs were curated by eminent figures in each field and interspersed throughout the city, giving visitors the opportunity to ‘chance upon’ visual art, photography, craft, music, theatre, dance, and culinary arts.
Curated by Ranjit Hoskote and Subodh Gupta, the visual arts program included large exhibitions curated by each, along with a number of other projects including ‘Line of Flight’, looking at the role artist residencies play in the circulation of contemporary art, and Young Subcontinent, a recurring exhibition of work by early to mid-career South Asian artists. With a focus on social and political issues in the region, Young Subcontinent featured some devastating works. One such was by Minzayar Oo, whose documentary photographs, Reunions and Ransoms and film, Peace Be With You (both 2018) portrayed displaced Rohingya Muslims in internet huts at a camp in western Myanmar, communicating with loved ones held ransom by human traffickers. In immaculate paintings grounded in Bhutanese artistic traditions, Guempo Wangchuk expressed his sorrow and anger over his father’s death from alcohol consumption, while Parthasarathi Sengupta’s photographic series Bhumiputra: Son of the Soil documented residents at risk of statelessness fighting for
Ashish Sahoo. Courtesy the artist and Serendipity Arts Festival, Panaji.
Uzma Mohsin. Courtesy the artist and Serendipity Arts Festival, Panaji.
