ART FEST : Serendipity Arts Festival at Bikaner House, Pandara Road​, India Gate > 11am-7pm on 6th to 16th April 2017

Time : 11:00 am - 7:00 pm Add to Calendar 06/04/2017 11:00 16/04/2017 19:00 Asia/Kolkata ART FEST : Serendipity Arts Festival Event Page : http://www.delhievents.com/2017/03/art-fest-serendipity-arts-festival-at.html Bikaner House, Pandara Road​, India Gate, New Delhi-110003 DD/MM/YYYY

Entry : Free

Venue : Bikaner House, Pandara Road​, India Gate, New Delhi-110003
Venue Info : Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Khan Market(Violet Line)'

Event Description : Serendipity Arts Festival 

After eight days of cultural extravaganza in Goa, Serendipity Arts Festival, an interdisciplinary arts festival, is all set for its Delhi edition. 

The Delhi edition of the festival will include a crafts exhibition, photography exhibition, design installation, dance performances, storytelling session and a theatre performance. The first edition of Serendipity Arts Festival was held in Goa in December over 8 days. It was spread across 8 venues in Panaji, had 14 curators facilitating dialogues and 53 projects in various fields.

Those who missed out on the Goa edition will get a peek of it in the Delhi edition. An intensive schedule of exhibitions and performances will be accessible to audiences throughout the 11 days of the festival in the Capital. Art connoisseurs looking to make value addition to their collection will find the festival inspiring, as piece of craft and photography can be purchased. All the proceeds of sales will go towards helping craftspersons and school, which was involved in the photography project.

There are various projects that form a part of Serendipity Arts Festival 2016 in 2017. Indian Crafts: Traditions and Expressions, an exhibition by Manjari Nirula and Jyotindra Jain, explores the possibility of creating a contemporary environment for artisans by nudging them to explore their inherent creativity. These works on display will be on sale, where the proceeds go back to the Serendipity Arts Trust, and the funds will be used to support artisan communities. The Express/Aspire project with the Auxilium High School, Goa, explores photography and how a child looks through the lens. This project curated by Samar Jodha, begins a multi-layered inquisition into how to engage children with creativity and how it helps develop the child’s personality.

Serendipity Arts Trust was started to forge new directions in the arts, even at the cost of experimentation and challenging norms. Sanjeev Bhargava’s project Sandhi questions the hierarchies that exist between a classical musician and dancer. This project is a true depiction of creative collaborations, and the productions have provided an opportunity for interdisciplinary synergy where literature and music within dance are emphasised. Through these projects, the Trust hopes to engage and reach out to artists and audiences from all demographics, and bring art back into peoples lives. 

Serendipity Arts Trust is also proud to present, Chakraview, which is curated by Rajshree Pathy with design by Sumant Jayakrishnan. This project represented India at the London Design Biennale. Art and design have many overlaps where one affects the other. This project was added into the programming to bring these two communities together and to draw inspiration from their confluence. 

Sunil Munjal, the founder patron of Serendipity Arts Trust says “the festival emphasises the importance of the Indian traditions in art along with introducing the Capital to the variety in art and culture through novel concepts of visual and performing arts. Serendipity Arts Festival is more than a showcase of great Indian art – it is a cultural experiment that hopes to, over time, affect the way Indians interact with art on a daily basis by addressing issues such as arts education, patronage culture, interdisciplinary discourse, and accessibility of the arts.”

Smriti Rajgarhia, Director of Serendipity Arts Trust, says Serendipity Arts Trust believes in creating new engagements, platforms and opportunities for the arts. After a successful first edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa, December 2016, the Trust is bringing a small sample of the Festival to Delhi at the Bikaner House. Serendipity Arts Trust was started to forge new directions in the arts, even at the cost of experimentation and challenging norms. The Trust has always believed in the need for interdisciplinarity and we hope that the mix of projects will bring people from different genres to engage with the other creating more awareness and interaction. This environment, we hope, will expose practitioners and audiences to newer forms of art and generate interest in the field.

Schedule : 

Indian Crafts: Tradition and Expression
Date - 6th - 16th April 2017- All Days 
Time - 10 am – 7 pm

The exhibition Indian Crafts: Tradition and Expression, curated by Dr Jyotindra Jain (co-editor of Marg Publications, Mumbai) and Manjari Nirula (vice-president of World Crafts Council Asia-Pacific Region and the Crafts Council of India), intends to create a specific space for the crafts which will aim to exhibit, educate and revive the historic importance of these. “Representing 20 different crafts falling under the category of sculpture, textile and painting, we attempt to change the way the craft is received by its audience though commissioning, purchasing and loaning craft objects of exceptional skill,” says Nirula.

Abdul Jabbar Khatri is a craftsman who has mastered the art of bandhini making. Vibrant bandhinis borne out of Khatri's experiments with new designs, different colours and dyeing techniques will be available at the festival. Bhajju Shyam's Gond art with an urban twist, Bhuvnesh Prasad's contemporary burnished stone Terracotta, Chandra Bhushan Kumar's Madhubani art, Dinesh Chandra Kumar's terracotta plaques of Molela, Rajasthan, Gurupada Chitrakar's Patachitra scrolls of West Bengal, Iqbal Ahmed's Pacchi Kari Marble Inlay Work of Agra, Jai Prakash's miniature painting from Rajasthan,   Padma Shri Kailash Chandra Meher's Tussar Patachitra paintings of Orissa, Kalam Patua's Kalighat paintings, Mohammed Yusuf Khatri's hand-block printing tradition of Bagh, Madhya Pradesh, Mohammad Matloob's Jaali carving work, Ram Soni and Vijay Kumar Verma's hand-cut stencils and Pitabas Meher's Ikat sarees are a few of other unique works that will be on display. 

Photography exhibition 
Date - 6th - 16th April 2017- All Days 
Time - 10 am – 7 pm

Samar S. Jodha’s Express/Aspire is a 11 day exhibition which is the outcome of a photography workshop that included 25 girls and boys from Auxillum School, Caranzalem, Goa, in the age group of 12 to 14, learning the basics of photography and making their own digital prints for submission.  The school with 1,000 plus students educates those from low income families. Most of their parents are migrant workers with high rate of illiteracy and work in the unskilled sector. A photography workshop that went beyond honing children’s creativity, it helped raise their self-esteem, imparts life lessons and offers possibilities that are hard for the participants to otherwise imagine in their difficult circumstances. The photographs are for sale and all the proceedings will go towards development of the school.   

Chakraview - an installation by India Design Forum (IDF)
 Date - 6th - 16th April 2017- All Days 
Time - 10 am – 7 pm

Chakraview, an installation by India Design Forum in collaboration with scenographer Sumant Jayakrishnan, is an installation which is uniquely Indian at its core and celebrates the Chakra, or a source of power, and a symbol of evolution and renewal. The Chakraview is a walk-in installation which has Jamdani and Ikatsilks hanging from the ceiling, hand-painted signs enclosed in circular hoops, and a black, shiny, reflective floor which mirrors the ceiling and the multiple chakras on it. 

Sandhi, curated by Sanjeev Bhargava
Duration : 60mins -        
April 6th : Amrita Lahiri, Kuchipudi dance + Sudha Raghuraman, 7 – 8 pm
 April 7th : Ayona Bhaduri, Odissi + musician (will give you name), 7 – 8 pm

Sandhi, curated by Sanjeev Bhargava (the man behind festivals like Ananya Dance Festival, South Asian Band Festival, Udaipur World Music Festival and more ), is a collaboration between a classical dancer and a classical vocalist addresses a serious lacuna in the field of dance—the scarcity of creative dance music. The performers Ayona Bhaduri (Odissi), Bhuvanesh Komkali (Hindustani vocal), Srinibas Satapathy ( Flute) , Amrita Lahiri (Kuchipudi) and Sudha Raghuraman (Carnatic vocal) present four productions which are a confluence of dance, music and literature.“We believe the Bikaner House will be the ideal location for the exhibition keeping in mind the cultural hub it has become. It fits well into our idea of bringing interdisciplinary art forms together, twining them with our heritage and yet looking forward,” says Sanjeev Bhargava - Founder of Seher.

Storytelling  - Eight moon project by Sahil Mukhia 

Duration - 60min 
Time -  7-8pm 
Day - 14th April 2017
Koitso Salil Mukhia has been working to document the sacred traditions of tribal cultures of the Eastern Himalayas and retell vanishing stories. His effort over the last 15 years, both as a storyteller and traditional healer brings the lesser known traditions of tribal India before the mainstream. 

Play - Dr Khanna
Date - 15th April 2017
Time - 7-8pm
Written and Directed by Tom Alter
Cast: Divya Arora and Tom Alter

Through the course of the 45 minute appointment, psychiatrist Dr. Khanna challenges businessman Mr. Kohli’s perspective of his own problems, and the formal barriers between patient and doctor begin to melt into a camaraderie that the two begin to share.

Related Events : Exhibitions | Dance | Theatre