New Delhi to host India’s first art book festival

India’s first two-day art book fair, the New Delhi Art Book Fair (NDABF), will begin on February 24 at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), Mansingh Road.

The festival is dedicated to the celebration of the country’s rich arts and cultural heritage through the prism of artists and books. Open to the public from 12.00 noon to 6.30 PM, the festival will witness special workshops and activities for children.

This first “free and open” art book fair will be a unique platform to discover India’s vast arts and cultural spectrum through diverse panel discussions, workshops, art and book exhibitions etc.

On the first day, there will be a talk by noted art historian, photographer and filmmaker Mr. Benoy K. Behl on his latest book The Art of India – Sculpture and Mural Painting. Mr. Arup Chatterjee will talk about aura of Indian trains and railway stations and its representations in writing, cinema and cultural production with his book The Purveyors of Destiny: A cultural Biography of Indian Railways.

This will be followed by panel discussion on art in the age of Instragram with illustrators and travel photographers and writers. The day will close with a discussion on the book Afloat a lotus leaf: Kapila Vatsayan-A cognitive biography by author Jyoti Sabharwal.

The second day will begin with the journey of a vintage camera collector about his museum- The Museo Camera – founded by Aditya Arya in conversation with photographer-cum-artist Samar Jodha. The second day will also highlight the art and culture of zine making and independent voices in Indian zine culture.

Mexican photographer Susan Casarin will discuss her book Realities and Desire with Santigo Ruy. This will be followed by session on Indian culture through graphic novel From genesis to taking it to global audience with Girija Jhujhunwala, Sourav Dutta and Lalit Sharma. Chef Michael Swamy, currently chef patron at Nueva, who has authored various books and has been a food stylist, will discuss his book Indian food with the publisher Ajay Mago, moderated by Ipshita Mitra, Editor, Om Books.

Independent musicians from the band The Circus and Undying Inc. will discuss the evolution of the taste, music and visual culture in the medium in contemporary India.

In addition there will be workshops on Handmade bookmaking by Tara Books, Stop-Motion Animation by Inteqam Alam of the Delhi School of Arts, The Art of Burst Sketching Indian Portraits by Abhinav Sharma and A journey with Indian Calligraphy by renowned artist Yusuf Gouri.

Other highlights are:

A special exhibition Iran and India: From Persian Gulf to Indian Ocean by Daryoosh Akbarzadeh. This show will explore the centuries’ old relations between Iran and India and the common ties in various cultural spheres. It will feature images of Hindi temple in Bandar Abbas, the Indian Caravan Serai in the Kerman, the Gurudwara in Zahedan and other common heritage places of Iran and India.

Zines exhibition by Bombay Underground X Tokio Ga.

Activities for children, like story telling session, script reading and writing workshop from Indian mythology and folk culture.

The festival will end with an open competition at 4PM on February 25 for participants. The participants can come dressed up as their favorite character, artists, authors at the venue. Prizes will be given to the best-dressed persons.