The art beat of Goa

Goans will get to witness a myriad display of art, all by Goa-based artistes, at the Goa Open Arts Festival which will be held from February 13 to 16 at Don Joao Lawns and Heritage House, Nagoa.
NT BUZZ gets a sneak peek

CHRISTINE MACHADO | NT BUZZ

While Goa has been the birthplace of many an artiste, over the years many creative people from around the country have also chosen to make the state their home.

And it was this fact that got Prashant Panjiar (former curator of photography programmes at Sunaparanta and Serendipity Arts Festival), Gurpreet Sidhu (co-founder of People Tree Collective), Gopika Chowfla (graphic designer and visual artist), Sitara Chowfla (curator and former programme manager at Khoj International Artist Association), and Diptej Vernekar (founding member of Goa Artist Collective), thinking.

“We began wondering how come we had never done anything where all creative people could come together,” says Prashant.

Besides the vibrant music scene that has traditionally been active in Goa, Sitara says that festivals like Serendipity have energised the local art space too. “So it seemed the right time to do something to bring together this resident creative community, which is how the Goa Open Arts Festival took shape and became a reality,” she says. An open call for participation went out in June 2019, and a jury made the final selections by October.

“One important aspect of being open is that it was for anyone to apply, whether an emerging artist or an established practitioner – and to retain control of how they present their work, unfettered by curatorial guidelines,” says Sitara, while Gopika adds that the only criterion was that the participant should be living in Goa. “We had calls from artistes from Mumbai and Bengaluru, but we told them that they would just have to move to Goa if they want to be a part of it,”
says Gopika.

The final festival line-up has around 75 participants and includes a diverse range of practices in the arts – music, performance, visual arts, poetry – and also opened up different interpretations of art. For example there are chefs who are using food to awaken sensory experiences and also a stimulating video game on important mental health issues by Mann Mela (a collaboration by Quicksand and Sangath).

“The visual arts exhibition is the main part of the festival with more than 50 artists showing their work. Going all the way from watercolours and printmaking to photography, ceramics, work created using textiles, video, immersive installations and graffiti, the exhibition is going to be an interesting interplay of voices,”
says Sitara.

Among those participating is Goan artist Viraj Naik who along with a group of other artists like Walter D’Souza, Leticia Alvares, Sripad Gurav, etc, will be displaying a selection of printmaking works. Artist Rajeshree Thakker meanwhile will be collaborating with poet Salil Chaturvedi and will be doing abstract works based on his poetry. Mustafa Khanbhai, a new media artist meanwhile who recently moved to the state from Delhi will be venturing into 2D work for the first time.

Some other highlights include the Travelling Library by Bookworm, a photo-installation by artist Nishant Saldanha, sculptural installations by Rajendra Mardolkar of the Goa Artist Collective, and ceramicist Thomas Louis, art performances by Nikhil Chopra and Bhisaji Gadekar, a sufi concert by Hawa, a performance by The Coffee Cats, and an electronic-music night by artistes Okedo & King Prawns. Some of the festival founders like Prashant and Gopika will also be exhibiting their works.

The participating artistes at the festival will also be conducting workshops for children from the village schools, thus opening up the space to a different audience. These schools include Government High School Alto Betim, Government High School Namoshi Guirim, GPMS Reis Magos, GPMS Socorro, and GPMS Mapusa.

Besides this, there will be workshops daily at the venue too, which will culminate in an exhibition.

Inclusivity for visitors of all levels of ability is also an important aspect of the festival and Goa Open Arts has tied up with Access for ALL as the accessibility outreach partner. They will be organising inclusive outreach workshops with special schools, and will focus their interactions around artist projects by Ayesha Seth Sen, Nimmy Joshi and the Shrine of Vagina’s installation by Cunteshwari Collective.

The organisers are also committed to making the festival sustainable and
eco-responsible.

The biggest challenge in putting together the exhibition however was raising funds, acknowledges Sitara. “Since this is an artist-driven initiative, we needed to raise funds from the community at large. We are grateful for the immense support we have received from donors and people who have come on as partners to make this happen,” she says.

The organisers are looking at making this an annual event. “We would like to add more arts like stand-up comedy and more theatre. But this is just the starting point,” says Prashant.

 “The idea of this initiative, particularly as it involves resident artists, is to have continuing engagements within the community through the year,” says Sitara. She adds that they hope that the introductions in this festival lead to collaborations and mentoring and that more artists are motivated to participate next year with an altered outlook. “We also hope to be able to bring more of the performing arts on board. We are looking forward to working on programmes with international cultural institutions so that artists get more opportunities and exposure beyond Goa,” she says, adding that there is plenty of creative talent in Goa but the opportunities to show this talent is still limited and it is only recently that avenues are opening for artists to explore, experiment and display their work. “Often talented young artists get passed over in the gallery and curator-oriented art world, so I believe an open platform such as this one is a good alternative to bring more talent out,”
she says.