Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce

Up You Go

A boy helps his companion scale the fort wall at Mahim beach in Mumbai. 

Wine win in SoBo

This seems to be the season to welcome a host of sparkly new places to wine and dine in the city. Wine connoisseurs in SoBo can soon hop to a brand new cellar conceptualised by sommelier Nikhil Agarwal, popular for his tasting experiences. At the All Things Nice The Wine Cellar in Malabar Hill, enthusiasts can seek Agarwal’s guidance while browsing through the collection, as well as get access to private tasting sessions led by him. “We hope to create a warm welcoming wine store that forges a relationship among a community of people who love wine,” he told us.

Inking a cool idea

This diarist often dreamed of getting a tattoo as a symbol of being a rule-breaker. For Andre Tully, founder, Kula Worldwide, the tattoo is a far more traditional art. Tully (below) is currently working on plans to bring to the city a festival that blends ink art with performance, music and experience at the Kula gathering in January. “We want to bring about a modern tribe coming together to develop capacity-building, audience-building, and connections amongst diverse communities and celebrate them through exchange,” he told this diarist. In addition to contemporary designers and graffiti artists, the fest will also see indigeneous creators. “There will be traditional Baiga artists from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh coming to showcase their work. There will also be indigenous artists from Sarawan in Borneo, and a few Maori artists,” Tully noted.

Also read: Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Let’s bridge the gaps

Arundhati Ghosh

The India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) has joined hands with the Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection and Activism (QAMRA) Archival Project at Bengaluru to encourage the conversation around queer activism, art and work with museums. “Across all our programmes, we try our best to partner with journeys of artists and scholars that seek unheard voices and explore the gaps and silences in history. We hope the projects in collaboration with QAMRA will enable and aid thinking, conversations and activism around queer rights; educate us about the history of the queer struggle and movement,” Arundhati Ghosh, executive director, IFA said.

Imagine like a child

Does art always have to be intellectually difficult or abstract? Not so. A few young Picassos in the city could be vying for attention at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival that begins in February next year. The annual arts celebration of the city will also host works by children as part of their festival initiative. Their latest invite for schools caught the attention of this diarist. Brinda Miller, chairperson, Kala Ghoda Arts Festival revealed that the participation of children has been a regular practice with the festival. She added, “This year, the theme for the kids is Zip, Zap, Zoom, where we invite them to zoom into the future and envision a time and space that is yet to be seen.”

A previous installation from Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 

Children will be allowed to submit their works through their schools or NGOs. While there is no restriction on material, the installations will be limited to 4x4 feet. In view of safety and its theme of conservation, the submissions will also keep a limitation on the use of thermocol and electricity in the artworks. Each school sending in a submission can only have one installation that will be displayed during the nine days at the fest. “Sometimes, children’s installations are much better than those submitted by adults. Hence, we encourage maximum children participation,” Miller observed. Interested kids would want to mail at children.kgaf@gmail.com before the deadline of January 5.

Straight from Surat

Considering the state’s proximity to the city, one would think Gujarati cinema had a ready audience. The ongoing 19th edition of the Third Eye Asian Festival in the city is among the rare times a retrospective of contemporary Gujarati cinema is being held. “In Mumbai, even in the past, screenings for Gujarati films were not common. There is a growing focus on South cinema,” Sandeep Manjrekar (inset), deputy director of the festival said.

The reason is a lack of attention on the audience and the city, Subhash Chheda, curator of the section revealed. Concluding on December 19, the festival will also have a country focus on the neighbours, Sri Lanka. “It is to highlight their struggle and return to progress,” Manjrekar noted.

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