A celebration of arts, culture, and identity

Team L&M

Come October 18, and all roads will lead to the India International Centre (IIC) New Delhi. The centre is holding the 20th edition of its annual festival of arts, The IIC Experience: A Festival of the Arts, from October 18 to 22, 2024 on the theme Kalpavriksha: The Nationalist Movement – Freedom and Identity. As the name suggests, the festival will delve into the contours of India’s nationalist movement which shaped the country’s identity and ignited a cultural revival across dance, music, crafts, and the study of classical texts.

There will be wide-ranging programmes of music, dance, theatre, folk art and exhibitions, both in indoor and outdoor spaces, besides delectable food to eat.

The festival begins an exhibition titled Manuscripts and the Movement of Ideas across Asia.  IIC President Shyam Saran will inaugurate it and there will be a dance performance Sampoorna – ‘I Travel from Temple to Stage’ by Sharmila Biswas and the Odissi Vision and Movement Centre. Noted Historian Prof Sugata Bose will deliver the keynote address at 6:30pm.

The other exhibitions include The Future of the Past, curated by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute on October 18 4pm, Khadi: The Fabric of Freedom, The Language of Fashion which traces the journey of Khadi from resistance to modern fashion at 5pm the same day. The next day, October 19, IIC will play host to Scenes from Santiniketan & Benodebehari’s Handscrolls, that will feature early handscrolls by Benode Behari Mukherjee.

Notable among performances is a reading of poems composed during the Independence movement on October 19 (4pm), followed by Jazz Concert by Cuba’s Buena Vista Jazz Band.

Sumangala Damodaran will present the Songs of Resistance, Songs of Hope on October 20 during the day while Ustad F Wasifuddin Dagar will present Dhrupad recital in the evening,

On October 21, there will be a contemporary dance from Korea, Didida that explores mythological texts and collective unconsciousness while October 22 will have a solo dance drama, Tanashah, based on Bhagat Singh’s prison diaries by Bharatnatyam exponent Navtej Singh Johar.

A Carnival of Comedy Films, curated by award-winning filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, showcasing classic comedies from silent cinema to the works of Ernst Lubitsch and Jacques Tati will also be screened during the festival. There will be a special screening of Shyam Benegal’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero and Ekla Chalo by Nachiket Patwardhan.

Besides, there will be talks and lectures through the five-day festival. These include Nationalism and Popular Cinema by Prof. Ira Bhaskar on October 19, Bose & Bose: Making of the INA by Prof. Rudrangshu Mukherjee on October 20, Pioneers of the Modern Renaissance of India by Prof. Pradeep Apte on October 21, and The Shaping of Modern Indian Science by Dr P Balaram on October 22.

Not to be missed is the Food Festival wherein you can indulge in a culinary journey with Celebrating the Home Chef, featuring cuisines such as A Kashmiri Wazwan Feast by Chef Saleeth Nisar, Street Treats of New Orleans by Chef Jayita Sen, and Banglar Ranna by Chef Chitra Ghose.

The IIC Quarterly: Autumn 2024 will also be released during the festival by NN Vohra, Life Trustee of IIC, with a focus on key issues such as the 2024 General Elections and the ongoing strife in Manipur.

From October 18-22