Tag: Visual Arts

Events in Goa

Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 Concludes 10th Edition with a Grand, Multidisciplinary Finale

Tanisha Cardozo

Written by Tanisha Cardozo || Team Allycaral

The Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 drew to a memorable close in Panaji, marking the conclusion of its landmark 10th edition with a sweeping celebration of artistic expression across disciplines. Over ten days, the festival transformed Goa’s public spaces, heritage buildings, and cultural venues into hubs of creativity, dialogue, and community engagement, reaffirming its place as one of India’s most significant multidisciplinary arts festivals.

As the festival concluded, the Hon’ble Governor of Goa, Shri Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju, accompanied by Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal, Founder Patron of Serendipity Arts, visited several festival venues across the city. Their walkthrough included Azad Maidan, the Old PWD Building, the Directorate of Accounts, the Old GMC Complex, and Art Park, where they interacted with artists, curators, and members of the festival team. The visit highlighted the festival’s expansive programming and its meaningful engagement with public and heritage spaces, underscoring its role in enriching Goa’s cultural landscape.

The closing day featured a series of standout performances across music and theatre. The Arena at Nagalli Hills hosted a vibrant finale curated by Sneha Khanwalkar, bringing together artists including Mulla Altaf Raja Ebrahim, Jasbir Jassi, Sunetra Banerjee, Maithili Shome, Zoheb Husain Khan, and Gaurav Pawankumar Khullar. The concert blended beloved tracks with bold sonic experimentation, delivering a colourful, playful, and energetic conclusion that left audiences exhilarated.

Theatre programming concluded at the Old GMC Complex with Bob Marley from Kodihalli, curated by Sankar Venkateswaran. The Kannada production drew inspiration from the legacy of reggae icon Bob Marley to examine questions of identity, freedom, and caste through a compelling mix of Brechtian theatre and musical interludes, inviting audiences to reflect on marginalised voices and social realities.

Music continued to resonate across venues with the Nagaland Madrigal Singers performing at Dinanath Mangeshkar Kala Mandir. The 19-member choir presented a repertoire spanning classical sacred works, Naga and Asian folk music, international folk songs, and contemporary compositions, showcasing their artistic versatility and cultural heritage. The same venue hosted Spirit and Harmony: A Christmas Special, curated by Ranjit Barot, which ushered in the festive season with a grand big-band production celebrating iconic holiday music in a visually rich setting.

The River Raag series concluded with Manganiyar Parampara at Santa Monica Jetty, where Manganiyar musicians from Rajasthan performed against the backdrop of the Mandovi River. The sunset cruise performance wove together folk traditions, nature, and spirituality, offering a poetic and reflective conclusion as music flowed alongside the river.

Throughout the final day, visitors continued to engage with exhibitions and installations that remained open across venues. These included Multiplay 02: Soft Systems, The Culinary Odyssey of Goa, What Does Loss Taste Like?, Home is Where the Heart is, Infinite Drape, Stepwells: Poetry in Craft, and Hands, Tools, and the Living Thread, among many others. A photography exhibition exploring the evolving idea of home brought together five photographers whose works reflected personal and intergenerational perspectives on belonging.

The festival’s commitment to inclusivity remained central until the very end. The Children’s Programme at Art Park concluded with storytelling sessions, workshops, and interactive experiences, while accessibility initiatives at The Access Village continued through exhibitions, sensory spaces, and workshops designed to ensure an inclusive festival experience for all.

As Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 came to a close, it left behind ten days of artistic exploration that celebrated diversity, innovation, and dialogue. Spanning theatre, music, visual arts, craft, photography, culinary arts, and accessibility programming, the festival once again demonstrated the transformative power of the arts to bring people together and reimagine shared cultural spaces.

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.

Events in Goa

Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 Opens in Panjim with a Grand Celebration of Heritage and Innovation

Tanisha Cardozo

Written by Tanisha Cardozo || Team Allycaral

The landmark 10th edition of Serendipity Arts Festival opened in Panjim on December 12 with a powerful celebration of India’s cultural heritage and contemporary artistic expression. Returning to Goa for ten days of immersive experiences, the opening day reflected the festival’s enduring vision of bridging tradition and innovation through art.

The evening commenced with the inauguration of Barge at the Captain of Ports Jetty in Old Goa, where Founder-Patron Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal welcomed audiences to the milestone edition. Reflecting on the journey of the festival, he described Serendipity Arts as a movement that has grown into a shared cultural space connecting artists, communities, and audiences across disciplines. The 10th edition, he noted, is dedicated to Mukta Munjal, whose early initiatives in the arts continue to inspire the festival’s spirit.

Curated by Veerangana Solanki, Barge transformed a floating structure into an experiential space exploring absence and presence through spatial, architectural, and sonic responses. Drawing from earlier exhibitions, the installation invited visitors to activate the space through movement, sound, and perception, leaving behind fleeting yet personal imprints.

The opening continued at Nagalli Hills with Palette(s), a striking performance by Cédric Gagneur and Marc Oosterhoff that reimagined wooden pallets as both object and collaborator. Blurring the lines between dance and circus, the performance explored gravity, vulnerability, and repetition in a raw and physical expression.

The night concluded with Clay Play, curated by Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan, a mesmerizing performance that foregrounded percussion instruments crafted from clay. Rooted deeply in Goan traditions, the sounds of the ghumat and other instruments resonated through the space, reaffirming their place as living cultural practices rather than relics of the past.

Across the city, Beasts of Reincarnations: Mythical Beings in the City began appearing along Panjim’s streets and waterfronts. Curated by Diptej Vernekar, the large-scale installations reimagined Goa’s effigy-making traditions, inviting the public to encounter ritual memory through forms suspended between destruction, renewal, and contemporary urban life.

As the festival unfolds, exhibitions opening from December 14 will further expand this dialogue. These include Not a shore, neither a ship, but the sea itself at the Old GMC Complex, OTHERLAND at the Old GMC Building, and several immersive installations exploring systems, food memory, loss, movement, and sensory experience across multiple venues.

Day 1 of Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 set a compelling tone for the days ahead, weaving together local and global voices, traditional and contemporary practices, and transforming Panjim into a living, breathing canvas of artistic discovery.