Category: Events in Goa

Events in Goa

The BRIJ Incubator Debuts at Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 to Nurture India’s Cultural Enterprises

Tanisha Cardozo

Written by Tanisha Cardozo || Team Allycaral

The BRIJ Incubator was officially unveiled at the 10th edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival 2025, marking its first public appearance as a platform dedicated to nurturing early-stage cultural, craft-based, and creative ventures in India. The launch took place at The Stage, Art Park in Panjim, in the presence of Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal and Shri Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, setting the tone for a week of conversations and programming around making, entrepreneurship, and cultural innovation at the festival.

Conceived as an initiative that bridges traditional knowledge systems with contemporary entrepreneurial thinking, The BRIJ Incubator is designed to support founders, artisans, and cultural practitioners who are building sustainable, future-oriented enterprises rooted in heritage, material innovation, and community-led practices. Its debut at Serendipity offered audiences and industry stakeholders an early introduction to the Incubator’s mission and its first cohort of incubatees—Ekatra, Golden Feathers, and Karghewale.

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal, Founder Patron of Serendipity Arts and The BRIJ, shared that the Incubator emerged from the realisation that while India has an extraordinary depth of cultural knowledge and craft practice, there are limited structured pathways for these ideas to grow into sustainable enterprises. He noted that the Incubator aims to thoughtfully bridge tradition and entrepreneurship, building long-term value for artisans, founders, and India’s cultural economy. Launching the initiative at the Serendipity Arts Festival, he said, felt appropriate as festivals are spaces where ideas are tested, conversations emerge, and new ecosystems begin.

Addressing the gathering, Shri Vivek Aggarwal highlighted the evolving role of Serendipity Arts Festival in strengthening India’s cultural infrastructure. He acknowledged how platforms such as Serendipity are increasingly engaging with initiatives like The BRIJ Incubator to connect the arts with India’s startup and innovation ecosystem, thereby creating structured pathways for cultural entrepreneurship and long-term growth in the sector.

Mr. Mohit Dhawan, spokesperson for The BRIJ Incubator and President, Investment Office, Hero Enterprise, shared that the Incubator has grown out of years of listening to founders, artisans, and innovators who are doing meaningful work but often lack the structured support needed to mature their ideas into enterprises. He added that the goal is to create responsible pathways for cultural ventures to evolve while remaining true to the communities and practices they represent, and that Serendipity’s milestone year provided the right environment to begin this journey.

The launch also introduced The BRIJ Incubator’s broader programme at Serendipity Arts Festival 2025, which includes a flagship panel on Business Model Innovation and Funding Landscape in Arts & Crafts, featuring representatives from the Government of Goa, Catalyst AIC, Caspian Equity, HCL Foundation, and IFMR. The programme further includes Spark Idea: Pitch Opportunity, India’s first pitch platform dedicated to craft and culture-led startups, along with hands-on Maker’s Asylum workshops running throughout the festival.

Additional engagements include Craft Hub sessions led by incubatees Ekatra and Karghewale, offering immersive experiences in sustainable gifting, textile upcycling, and handloom weaving, as well as silent panels and making-led conversations exploring themes such as Jugaad versus Maker Culture and the evolving relationship between humans, materials, and craft.

The BRIJ Incubator’s presence at Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 marks the beginning of a long-term vision to build a dedicated ecosystem for cultural entrepreneurship in India. Future initiatives will be anchored at The BRIJ, a new cultural district currently under development in Delhi, envisioned as a space for interdisciplinary learning, making, research, and incubation—strengthening the foundations of India’s creative economy for years to come.

Events in Goa

DAG Unveils Landmark Exhibition on Indian Company Paintings at Aguad Port & Jail Complex, Goa

Tanisha Cardozo

Written by Tanisha Cardozo || Team Allycaral

DAG, in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, Government of Goa, has opened A Treasury of Life: Indian Company Paintings, c. 1790 to 1835, the most comprehensive exhibition of its kind in India, at the Aguad Port & Jail Complex. Featuring over 200 works drawn entirely from the DAG collection, the exhibition is curated by Giles Tillotson, Senior Vice President at DAG, and remains on view from 2 December 2025 to 14 January 2026, following a private preview held on 1 December.

Dedicated to honouring the largely anonymous Indian artists commissioned by the East India Company in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the exhibition explores how these painters responded creatively to new forms of patronage. Moving beyond traditional courtly conventions, they developed entirely new visual languages that blended Indian artistic practices with Western influences, marking a crucial transition in the evolution of Indian art.

Long marginalised within art historical narratives, Company painting has often been viewed as falling between classical tradition and modernism. A Treasury of Life challenges this perception by positioning the genre as a vital precursor to Indian modernism. The exhibition presents works across three broad themes: natural history, architecture, and Indian manners and customs. Together, these paintings document India’s flora and fauna with scientific precision, record architectural landmarks and cityscapes through hybrid visual techniques, and vividly portray traders, artisans, religious figures, and sacred idols.

Beyond their aesthetic value, these works serve as historical records of worlds that have since undergone profound transformation. From depictions of now-endangered plant species and altered ecosystems to careful renderings of architectural heritage and social customs, the paintings offer rare visual insights into India’s past. They also reflect European patrons’ desire to document an unfamiliar land and the ingenuity with which Indian artists adapted their skills to meet new expectations and audiences.

The exhibition includes works by known Company artists such as Sita Ram, Sewak Ram, and Chuni Lal, alongside contextual works by European artists including James Forbes, F. B. Solvyns, and Charles Gold. These references illuminate the broader visual culture of the period, demonstrating how Indian painters engaged with foreign models to create something entirely new rather than merely imitating Western styles.

Speaking on the occasion, Hon’ble Minister for Tourism, Shri Rohan A. Khaunte, said the exhibition brings to Goa an extraordinary era of Indian artistic brilliance and reinforces the state’s growing role as a centre for heritage-driven cultural experiences. Ashish Anand, CEO and Managing Director of DAG, noted that the exhibition builds on the gallery’s longstanding commitment to presenting pre-modern and hybrid art practices that laid the groundwork for Indian modernism.

Director of the Department of Tourism, Shri Kedar Naik, highlighted the exhibition’s contribution to Goa’s cultural calendar and its role in promoting meaningful tourism rooted in learning and heritage. Managing Director of GTDC, Shri Kuldeep Arolkar, and Vice President of Operations and Business Development at Aguad Port and Jail Complex, Shri Savio Mathias, also emphasised the importance of hosting high-calibre cultural initiatives that bring together art, history, and public engagement.

Accompanied by a publication featuring an introductory essay by curator Giles Tillotson and scholarly contributions from Apurba Chatterjee, Nicolas Roth, Malini Roy, Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, and Jennifer Howes, A Treasury of Life repositions Company painting as an essential chapter in India’s artistic journey. The exhibition invites audiences to reconsider the beginnings of modern Indian art through the lens of a genre that captured a moment of profound transition and creative exchange.

Events in Goa

Human Stories Behind Borders: ‘Displacement’ at Serendipity Arts Festival Explores Migration and Exile

Tanisha Cardozo

Written by Tanisha Cardozo || Team Allycaral

Migration and displacement, often discussed through numbers and geopolitical debates, take on deeply human dimensions at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 through the exhibition Displacement, curated by art historian Rahaab Allana. Open to viewing at The Old PWD Complex in Panaji, the exhibition brings together artists from South Asia and the Gulf region whose works reflect lived experiences of exile, asylum and rupture.

Allana situates the exhibition within the context of recent global migration trends, noting that 2024 witnessed record levels of displacement worldwide. From conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan to internal displacement within South Asia, the curator connects global crises with local and regional realities. These transitions, shaped by racism, border anxieties and minority-majority debates, form the conceptual backbone of Displacement.

The exhibition foregrounds image-based practices that confront today’s volatile socio-political landscape. While wars, territorial conflicts and ideologies dominate headlines, Allana stresses that it is ultimately human lives that bear the consequences. The works on display insist on a humanist approach, using art as a provocation for dialogue and empathy at a time of increasing polarisation.

Many of the artists featured are themselves living in exile or seeking asylum far from their homelands. Their works speak of both internal and external displacement, addressing themes of severance, surveillance, memory and loss, while also revealing how art becomes a means of survival and community-building. Through creative expression, these artists forge connections and shared spaces even while navigating life in exile.

Among the notable works is that of Afghan artist Hadi Ranaward, whose piece maps Kabul with delicate origami planes and helicopters hovering above the city. The shadows they cast evoke constant scrutiny and surveillance, capturing the psychological reality of living under watch and within contested spaces. Such works invite viewers to reflect not only on territory and power, but on the everyday lives shaped by them.

Trained in art history and photography, Allana’s curatorial practice has long focused on decolonising visual narratives, a sensibility that is evident throughout the exhibition. Rather than closing conversations, Displacement opens them up, encouraging viewers to ask questions and engage with perspectives that are often marginalised.

At its core, Displacement resists simplification. It does not seek easy resolutions but instead insists on complexity, compassion and attentiveness. Within the broader framework of the Serendipity Arts Festival, the exhibition stands as a reminder that behind every migration story is a human life — carrying memory, trauma, hope and the enduring need to belong.

Events in Goa

Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 Day 2 Unfolds with Jazz Grooves, Motown Memories and Immersive Visual Worlds

Tanisha Cardozo

Written by Tanisha Cardozo || Team Allycaral

The second day of Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 unfolded as a vibrant celebration of sound, memory and visual storytelling, reaffirming the festival’s commitment to diverse artistic expressions spread across multiple venues in Panjim. Audiences moved seamlessly between music, film, exhibitions and culinary experiences, encountering art that invited both participation and reflection.

At The Arena at Nagalli Hills, the evening’s musical journey began with The Revisit Project, curated by Zubin Balaporia and Ehsaan Noorani. Known for demystifying the complexities of jazz, the band delivered a powerful blend of groove-driven rhythms, old-school funk and contemporary jazz, weaving pointed observations about life, love and politics in India into their performance. The set offered a refreshing balance of technical precision and emotional accessibility, drawing in both seasoned listeners and new audiences.

The night reached a celebratory high with Motown Madness, also curated by Zubin Balaporia. The high-energy concert paid tribute to the iconic Motown sound that shaped generations, transporting audiences through timeless hits associated with legends like Michael Jackson, The Supremes and Stevie Wonder. The performance blended nostalgia with exuberance, turning the venue into a space of collective joy and shared musical memory.

Reflecting on the evening, Balaporia noted that the curation was about embracing the vast emotional range of music — from the sharp, contemporary language of jazz to the enduring warmth of Motown. Despite their differences, he observed, both performances met on common ground through rhythm, storytelling and shared energy.

Meanwhile, the Captain of Ports Jetty in Old Goa continued to host unique experiences aboard the Barge installation. The Silent Film Screening by Aldona Video Club transformed the floating venue into an intimate cinema, where audiences engaged with cinema that both honoured and questioned traditional narrative forms. The collective’s approach examined representation and media boundaries, offering a contemplative counterpoint to the city’s musical pulse.

From December 14 onwards, exhibitions across festival venues opened to the public, further expanding the festival’s immersive landscape. At the Directorate of Accounts, Multiplay 02: Soft Systems, curated by Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra, invited visitors into a participatory environment designed as a sandbox for collective experience. Featuring works by artists including Chunky Move, Jayasimha Chandrashekar, Alke Reeh, Bwanga Kapumpa and Teja Gavankar, the exhibition encouraged acts of care, rest and attention — from modelling clay portraits in the dark to listening to the sounds of trees and birds. The curators described the project as a tender constellation of practices that hold space, invite participation and foster connection through touch, rhythm and generosity.

At Art Park, The Culinary Odyssey of Goa, curated by Odette Mascarenhas, explored Goan cuisine as a living archive of memory and migration. The project showcased five traditional kitchens representing Hindu artisans, Muslim descendants of the Bijapur dynasty, Gaud Saraswat Brahmins, Indo-Luso influences and Christian descendants. Through tastings centred on ingredients such as turmeric, kokum, black peppercorn, tamarind and star anise, visitors engaged with stories of spice, history and everyday ritual narrated by the curator herself.

The Promenade hosted Urban Reimagined, curated by Ravi Agarwal, which examined the city through the lens of waste, extraction and inequality. Featuring photographs by the late Vivan Sundaram, the exhibition positioned waste as a marker of caste and class, prompting audiences to confront what urban spaces reveal — and conceal — about aspiration, excess and social structure.

At The Access Village in the Old GMC Complex, Therefore I Am brought together seven artists whose lived experiences of disability shape their creative practices. Working across painting, sculpture, photography, video, performance and digital media, the artists challenged conventional perceptions of the body, presenting disability as a powerful site of creativity, resistance and truth. Curator Salil Chaturvedi highlighted the exhibition as an essential reminder that disability is not marginal, but an integral part of the collective human story.

Together, the experiences of Day 2 wove a rich tapestry of jazz, nostalgia, visual inquiry and participatory art, underscoring Serendipity Arts Festival 2025’s role as a platform where artistic expression meets social reflection and shared experience.

Events in Goa

A 400-Year-Old Caravaggio Masterpiece Comes Alive at Serendipity Arts Festival Goa

Tanisha Cardozo

Written by Tanisha Cardozo || Team Allycaral

Under the patronage of the Embassy of Italy in India, the Consulate General of Italy in Mumbai, the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre New Delhi and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Mumbai, in collaboration with Serendipity Arts and with the support of MetaMorfosi Cultural Association, the exhibition of Magdalene in Ecstasy by Caravaggio is being presented at the 10th edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa. This marks the first time a work by Caravaggio is exhibited in Goa and India, bringing one of the most defining figures of Western art history into direct conversation with a contemporary, multidisciplinary cultural platform.

Painted during Caravaggio’s final, turbulent years while he was fleeing Rome after a fatal duel, Magdalene in Ecstasy captures Mary Magdalene in a moment suspended between spiritual transcendence and human vulnerability. Her tear-streaked face, stripped of ornate symbolism and rendered with stark emotional realism, reflects the artist’s inward turn during the last phase of his life. The work was among the paintings Caravaggio carried with him on his final journey toward a papal pardon that he would never receive.

The painting resurfaced in the early twenty-first century after centuries in relative obscurity and was authenticated by leading scholars, including Mina Gregori. Bearing historical markings linked to papal provenance, the work exemplifies Caravaggio’s radical departure from idealized religious imagery, retaining only the skull and cross as symbols of mortality and faith.

The exhibition was inaugurated on December 14, 2025, by Walter Ferrara, Consul General of Italy in Mumbai; Andrea Anastasio, Director of the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre in New Delhi; Francesca Amendola, Director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Mumbai; and Smriti Rajgarhia, Director of Serendipity Arts, in the presence of Shrinivas Dempo, Honorary Consul of Italy in Goa, and Rohit Monserrat, Mayor of Panaji. The painting will remain on view until December 21, 2025, at the Directorate of Accounts, a heritage venue within the festival’s city-wide programme.

Within the festival context, Magdalene in Ecstasy is presented in dialogue with contemporary, site-specific installations, underscoring the enduring relevance of Caravaggio’s vision across centuries and cultures. The setting allows history and contemporaneity to intersect, offering audiences a rare opportunity to encounter a classical masterpiece within the living fabric of present-day artistic expression.

Reflecting on the exhibition, Consul General Walter Ferrara described it as a celebration that honours the shared artistic and spiritual heritage of Italy and Goa, while Serendipity Arts Co-Founder and Patron Shefali Munjal noted that the presentation exemplifies the festival’s commitment to fostering dialogue across geographies, time periods and artistic practices. Smriti Rajgarhia emphasized that the arrival of the painting in Goa positions South Asia within global conversations on heritage, creativity and cultural exchange.

Curated by Andrea Anastasio, Director of the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre in New Delhi, and coordinated by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Mumbai in collaboration with Serendipity Arts, the exhibition stands as a milestone in cultural diplomacy. It reinforces the role of the Serendipity Arts Festival as a platform where historic works and contemporary practices meet, offering audiences an experience that is both reflective and transformative, and reaffirming the power of art to connect histories, cultures and communities across time.