Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF) is gearing up for its ninth edition from December 15-22, 2024, bringing a diverse artistic showcase to Panjim, Goa. The festival’s programming spans multiple visual arts disciplines, theatre, music, dance and culinary arts. Organised by the Serendipity Arts Foundation, the festival has become one of the most widely attended and anticipated events on the South Asian calendar.
Sunil Kant Munjal, founder patron of Serendipity Arts Foundation notes, “The journey over the last nine years has been memorable, filled with numerous learnings and moments of joy and pride…What began as a passion project has become a dynamic social and cultural phenomenon that resonates with audiences far beyond Goa. We were hopeful when we started but never anticipated it would grow to this extent…These nine years have also deepened my belief in the transformative power of the arts—their ability to challenge norms, inspire change and foster meaningful dialogue. As we continue to grow, we will expand access, preserve traditions, drive innovation and create a lasting impact.”
The festival is not organised around a central theme; instead, it invites multiple curators to create an experience that has something for everyone. Visual arts curator Veerangana Solanki confronts the challenge of making art accessible to multiple demographics with A Haptic Score, which is a multisensory experience. The immersive exhibition is experienced through touch and sound rather than sight, challenging conventional modes of presenting art. Co-curators Thukral and Tagra present Multiplay, a dialogic exhibition that sees artists as facilitators of communal discussion rather than the sole creators of an artwork. The exhibition Goa Familia highlights Goan culture and art while presentations by the National Centre for Plastic Arts in France and Science Gallery Bengaluru highlight art focusing on important modern issues such as climate change.
The theatre programming in 2024 is by Quasar Thakore Padamsee and Sankar Venkateswaran. The 2023 performance of Antigone, Interrupted finds a follow-up in Glitch in the Myth by Anoushka Zaveri, which presents a subversive take on the Ramayana. Meanwhile, performances like Mallika Taneja’s Do You Know This Song? and Lilanoor Ensemble’s play Buried Treasures incorporate art forms like music and shadow puppetry to enrich the theatrical experience. Kalakshetra Manipur’s performance Relief Camp sheds light on the trauma and the absurdity of violence faced by people in Manipur. As with every edition of SAF, workshops led by artists and activists abound, like French scenographer Jean-Guy Lecat’s Future Spaces for Theatre: A Journey Through Theatre and Architecture. Participants in the workshop engage in exercises, improvisation and discussions to learn about spatial dynamics in theatre, from movement to set design.
The festival’s craft programme, curated by designer Sandeep Sangaru and ceramic artist Kristine Michael, uses the workshop format to introduce audiences to traditional Indian craftsmanship and materials like jute. Sangaru sparks conversations about cultural preservation and sustainability through the exhibition Abundance in Scarcity: Exploring Ladakh’s Sustainable Ingenuity. The immersive look into Ladakh’s cold desert environment celebrates local ingenuity and resilience, platforming artisans from Ladakh. Meanwhile, in Past Forward: Remix and Collaborations in Ceramics and Glass, Michael brings together artisans and contemporary artists from across Goa and India to collaborate on a series of sculptures to reinterpret different materials and their cultural connotations.
The festival’s focus on harnessing the traditional and contemporary is apparent from its extensive programme of AI-based exhibitions, continuing from previous years. The special project AI Minilab, curated by Mathieu Wothke, immerses audiences in generative AI tools and their visual output to demystify AI. Visitors can speak their ideas into visuals using microphones and AI software. The Infinity Room, in collaboration with LACMA and curated by Mathieu Wothke, uses LACMA’s extensive archive of South Asian Art to create an AI-generated data sculpture bringing art history to contemporary audiences. Smriti Rajgarhia, director of the Serendipity Arts Foundation and the festival says, “Since the very first edition in 2016, we’ve looked at bringing curators, artists and changemakers together to curate the festival – two curators for each discipline, often with practices and expertise that are worlds apart…This approach creates a space where the full range of art from the country can be showcased within the microcosm of the festival. Whether it’s exhibitions of craft clusters or tech-based projects, both exist side by side, with the festival acting as an incubator for ideas in all their diverse forms.”
Dancer-choreographers Geeta Chandran and Jayachandran Palazhy join forces as curators of the dance programme. Sutra and Aqeedat, curated by Chandran, celebrate the classical Indian dance forms of Odissi and Kathak respectively, while Allegories of Anatomy: A Triple Bill, curated by Palazhy, brings internationally acclaimed contemporary dancers Aseng Borang, Jasmine Yadav and Jaewoo Jung to the SAF stage.
SAF taps music director Zubin Balaporia to bring together legendary rock, folk and classical musicians to promote peace through performance at the Peace Concert and One World events. Co-curator classical musician Bickram Ghosh, meanwhile, presents a host of programmes celebrating Indian classical music, including Jugalbandi—a musical conversation between two contrasting instruments. SAF invites audiences to the riverside art park to enjoy performances by local musicians, like Merak and Stitch in Nine, revolving fittingly around the theme of ‘contrast’.
Accessibility curator, writer and disability rights advocate Salil Chaturvedi is also bringing audiences to Goa’s outdoors for radically accessible exhibitions. The Nature’s Symphony: A Bird Watching Adventure event, for example, allows visually impaired visitors to engage with birds through sound and touch in collaboration with the Goa Bird Conservation Network. Meanwhile, Blind Date with Friends pairs neurodiverse and neurotypical individuals together, allowing both to experience the festival uniquely and cultivate shared understandings.
The festival also celebrates the universal language of food through a culinary arts programme curated by the Edible Issues collective. Come Eat With Me, for example, blends the theatrical with the gastronomical by inviting audiences into personal experiences and stories shared by a Dalit artist over a communal meal that foregrounds Dalit marginality. Programmes like the Bring-Your-Own-Pickle (BYOP)and A Visual Encyclopaedia of Indian Foods celebrate cultural diversity by showcasing regional foods, while culinary arts workshops invite audiences to think more deeply about their food, its origin and environmental impact.
The challenges of organising a festival with such an extensive and diverse programme are many. Rajgarhia says, “Challenges abound. It requires immense hard work from the team, the curators and the artists involved to start from scratch at the beginning of each year and organise a festival of this scale. Yet, it is incredibly gratifying to see everything come together in December, offering something for everyone who visits.”
(Text by STIR intern Srishti Ojha)