Latest news with #ZakirHussainMaquette
Mint
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
10 years of Serendipity: The arts festival hosts a mini edition in Birmingham
At the Bradshaw Hall—Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, you can see black-and-white photographs of Ustad Zakir Hussain lining the exhibition space. These hail from Dayanita Singh's Zakir Hussain Maquette and form a tribute to the late maestro, who passed away last year. This show also looks at the artist's early engagement with the form of the book and the ways in which she extended it to a handmade maquette 1986 onwards. The exhibition features exquisite candid images of Hussain alongside enlarged pages of handwritten interviews. The Zakir Hussain Maquette is part of a micro edition being organised by the Serendipity Arts Festival in the city of Birmingham, UK, till 26 May. This showcase kickstarts the 10-year anniversary celebration of the interdisciplinary festival, which will unfold across ten cities globally in the course of the year. At Birmingham, music seems to form the core of the micro edition with exhibitions, talks, performances and film screenings offering a nuanced understanding of different forms and styles such as the fado, Jazz from both India and Americas, folk music, ghazals and Hindi film music. Especially interesting is a showcase of Portuguese-Goan music by Zubin Balaporia and Nadia Rebelo, and Thumri in the Chamber, a reimagined presentation of the classical Indian vocal form. 'It invites audiences to experience thumri not only as a musical form, but as a cultural prism—one through which diverse artistic, historical, and social dimensions are refracted and revealed, offering a fresh and immersive perspective on one of Hindustani music's most cherished traditions,' states the curatorial note. This is being reflected through discussions and artistic interventions across the festival. There is also a pop-up library on the history of Indian instruments curated by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Hussain's genius is being celebrated not just through Singh's photographs but through film and interactions as well. According to Smriti Rajgarhia, director, Serendipity Arts Foundation and Festival, Remembering Zakir Hussain is a two-part tribute to the maestro. It includes a special screening of the film, The Speaking Hand, followed by a conversation between director Sumantra Ghosal and Dharmesh Rajput of Birmingham City University, which is the partner for the mini edition. The film traces the rise from the bylanes of Mumbai to global fame. The tribute also includes participatory workshops like the Art of Taal, presenting a confluence of drum and tabla, and Scoring to Picture that delves into the art of composing music for a film. Pop-up exhibitions around the history of Indian music instruments One wonders about the choice of Birmingham to start the milestone celebrations for the festival. According to Rajgarhia, the city represented a confluence of vibrant communities, a dynamic public culture, and a thriving creative ecosystem. 'Birmingham is bustling with annual festivals of jazz, comedy, poetry, film, and literature. It is also home to a notable artistic legacy — from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Royal Shakespeare Company and iconic cultural venues like the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Symphony Hall, to the region's great galleries like the Barber Institute, the Ikon Gallery, and the New Art Gallery Walsall,' she elaborates. Further, the city has come into the pop culture spotlight with shows like Peaky Blinders. This ever-evolving creative landscape made it conducive to host the first mini edition of Serendipity Arts Festival there. She feels that Birmingham, with its large South Asian diasporic community, provides a blueprint for experimentation with the idea of taking the arts across borders. For years now, the annual Serendipity Arts Festival, held across Panjim, has been rooted in the architecture and culture of the city. With every city having its own cultural fabric, how does the team plan to replicate that element going forward this year? 'Now that we kickstart with SAF's Mini Edition in Birmingham, we hope that the community here will respond to a living tapestry of art, music, and cultural narratives that bridge the East to the West,' says Rajgarhia. 'As in Goa, where we activate public spaces with our Festival, in Birmingham too we have iconic venues like the Symphony Hall and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire to encourage the public's engagement with art.'
Indian Express
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Serendipity Arts Festival turns 10
Photo artist Dayanita Singh often credits tabla maestro Zakir Hussain as her mentor. She was still a student at the National Institute of Design when she first encountered him. Travelling with him and his peers through the '80s led to her first book, a graduation project, in 1986. Over the years, she photographed him innumerable times, as he became an intrinsic part of her life and art. Now months after he passed away in December 2024, Singh is paying him a tribute in Birmingham. 'Zakir Hussain Maquette' is one of the several highlights of the Serendipity Arts Festival Mini Edition that is on in Birmingham till May 26. The outreach is part of the multidisciplinary festival's tenth anniversary celebrations. Expanding its global outreach, over the next few months, it will travel to 10 cities, including Dubai. Smriti Rajgarhia, Director, Serendipity Arts Foundation, states, 'As we mark the 10th milestone edition of Serendipity Arts Festival, we see this not just as a moment to celebrate, but as an opportunity to evolve. This edition is a way of looking back at a decade of building one of South Asia's largest multidisciplinary arts festivals while taking it forward in the world, to new regions and audiences… While selecting international locations, we were identifying cities where vibrant communities, dynamic public culture, and thriving creative ecosystems intersect.' Birmingham and Dubai, Rajgarhia notes, became 'natural choices'. 'Birmingham has a rich artistic legacy with iconic cultural venues and a significant history in the performing arts. Added to this is a large South Asian diaspora… Later this year, we plan to travel with a slice of the Festival to Dubai. In the last few years, the burgeoning arts scene in the UAE has attracted art collectors, patrons, local visitors, international tourists and galleries, making it a meaningful choice for us to have a presence there.' Being held at Birmingham City University, the festival also involves its students, who are participating in the workshops and engaging with curators and artists. At the heart of the Mini Edition's programme is 'Thumri in the Chamber', exploring the layered beauty of the semi-classical Hindustani vocal form that embodies poetic storytelling, improvisation and emotional depth. The musical line-up also includes Portuguese-Goan music by Zubin Balaporia and Nadia Rebelo, and ghazals and Bollywood classics by Priyanka Barve and Sarang Kulkarni. A documentary directed by Sumantra Ghosal on Zakir Hussain's musical journey will be screened along with a curated selection of films on Indian music by Dharmesh Rajput. Also on display will be 'Eternal Echoes', archival images of Indian musical instruments from the collection of Sunil Kant Munjal, curated by Helen Acharya, 'highlighting the craftsmanship and cultural legacy of Indian music'. Rajgarhia states, 'The curation for Birmingham was very context-driven. In Goa, we have the luxury of time and scale with 10 days, 20-plus venues and over 150 projects; we're able to build a truly immersive experience that spills into the city. In contrast, the Mini Edition in Birmingham is a more focussed, four-day format, and so the approach had to be precise and layered. We curated projects that reflect the values of SAF — interdisciplinary, experimentation, and accessibility, but also ones that could resonate deeply with local and diasporic audiences.' While Goa will continue to be the flagship edition, the tenth anniversary year will also see select programming in Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai. 'We like to explore how the differences in each city, its character, diverse people, artistic collaborations, and eclectic socio-cultural influences shape our festival. Rather than simply touring with the same set of events, each city will have different programmes, some of which have been showcased in the past. They're curated in the context of the location. Some core projects may travel from one city to another, especially those that can adapt across formats. But each edition will also include region-specific collaborations and programming. The goal is not uniformity, but cultural resonance,' adds Rajgarhia.
