‘The IIC Experience’ is back with its 20th edition
This year, the India International Centre celebrates the 20th edition of its annual festival ‘The IIC Experience: A Festival of the Arts’ from October 18 to October 22, 2024. The festival will highlight the nationalist movement in all its contours with a thematic focus titled ‘Kalpavriksha: The Nationalist Movement - Freedom and Identity’. The nationalist movement was characterised by a shared political consciousness in the country which brought about a change in people’s understanding of who they were and what defined their sense of identity. It encouraged and fostered a revival in dance and music, crafts, indigenous traditions, the study and interpretation of classical texts and other knowledge systems, which played a crucial role in shaping the national identity.
‘The IIC Experience’ was conceptualised to bring together a wide array of talents in the visual and performing arts, epitomising and encapsulating six decades of ‘IIC’ as a space for diversity, freedom, innovation, creativity, learning and entertainment. The range of activities - dance, music (Indian, Western classical and jazz), theatre, folk art, paintings, installations and photography exhibitions - take place using both outdoor and indoor spaces of IIC. The cuisine is also an important and integral part of ‘The IIC Experience’.
‘The IIC Experience 2024’ will begin with a curtain raiser on October 17, 2024, with the inauguration of an exhibition, ‘Manuscripts and the Movement of Ideas across Asia’. This will be followed at 6:30 pm by a keynote address to be delivered by well-known historian, Prof. Sugata Bose. The festival will be formally inaugurated by Shyam Saran, President of IIC on October 18 at 6:30 pm in the Fountain Lawns. The inaugural will be followed by ‘Sampoorna: I Travel from Temple to Stage’ by Sharmila Biswas and artists of Odissi Vision and Movement Centre, Kolkata.
The other programmes include ‘Poetry: Singing a Nation’ with readings from selected poems composed during the nationalist movement; ‘Songs of Resistance, Songs of Hope’ presented by Sumangala Damodaran; ‘Dhrupad Recital’ by Ustad F Wasifuddin Dagar and ‘Tanashah’, a solo dance drama based on the prison diaries of Bhagat Singh presented by Navtej Singh Johar. The festival also includes two special programmes - Jazz Concert by the ‘Buena Vista Jazz Band’ from Cuba and ‘Didida’, a contemporary dance presented by artists from Korea which explores mythological texts and engages with memories of the collective unconsciousness of Koreans.
Three diverse exhibitions will be presented - ‘The Future of the Past: The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute’ focusing on the history and cultural records maintained and preserved at the Institute which is considered a fountainhead of Orientology. ‘Khadi: The Fabric of Freedom, the Language of Fashion’ traces Khadi’s transformative journey across time from an instrument of resistance to becoming a symbol of conscious living and modern fashion.
The exhibition in the Art Gallery - Scenes from Santiniketan and Benodebehari’s Handscrolls’ - presents the earliest and longest handscroll ever painted by Benode Behari Mukherjee, depicting the 1920s landscape of Santiniketan.
The ‘IIC Quarterly: Autumn 2024’ will be released during the festival by N N Vohra, Life Trustee, IIC. The issue deals with two subjects that are foremost in our minds - the 2024 General Elections and the ongoing strife in Manipur among other areas of interest.
This year, the festival also includes talks that examine different aspects of the nationalist movement: ‘Nationalism and Popular Cinema’ by Prof. Ira Bhaskar; ‘Bose and Bose: Making of the INA’ by Prof. Rudrangshu Mukherjee; ‘Pioneers of the Modern Renaissance of India’ by Prof. Pradeep Apte and ‘The Shaping of Modern Indian Science in the Decades 1927-1967’ by Dr P Balaram.
‘A Carnival of Comedy Films’ - curated by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, award-winning filmmaker and archivist - presents a festival of classic comedies from the earliest silent movies to the unforgettable oeuvre of Ernst Lubitsch, Jacques Tati and others. Special screenings include Shyam Benegal’s ‘Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero’ and ‘Ekla Chalo’ by Nachiket Patwardhan.
Food festivals for the audiences include ‘Celebrating the Home Chef includes Under the Chinar Tree: A Kashmiri Wazwan Feast’ prepared by Chef Saleeth Nisar; ‘The Street Treats of New Orleans’ by Chef Jayita Sengupta; ‘God’s Own Table’ by Chef Rekha Raghavan; ‘Banglar Ranna’ prepared by Chef Chitra Ghose and ‘Flavours of South East Asia’ prepared by Chefs Jayita Sen and Abhishek Nawal. The food festival has been curated by Sourish Bhattacharyya of ‘We The Chefs’.
