Serendipity's three-month art residency begins

The third edition of the Dharti Arts Residency, a leading three-month artists' residency by Serendipity Arts Foundation, started Monday with four emerging artists kickstarting work on their unique ideas.

The 2019 artists-in-residence are: Dharmendra Prasad from Hatigaon in Guwahati; Farah Viraf Mulla from Mumbai; Khursheed Ahmad, a Delhi-based Kashmiri artist, and Shazia Salam from Bengaluru, the Foundation said.

The Foundation, which also organises the Serendipity Arts Festival that took just few editions to find footing in the South Asian arts ecosystem, hails the residency as one of its key programmes.

It aims to provide its artists-in-residence space and resources to develop their practice while working on new projects and interacting with the broader art community. 

Designed as an incubator for the art practice of young artists, the residency schedules their participation in a line-up of peer-to-peer conversations, critique sessions, gallery and studio visits, artist talks and presentations.

"We intend to offer a critical space for artists to question, explore and work on their individual artistic practices while attempting to introduce them to the existing arts network and various institutions that could support and further their research and practice," Foundation director Smriti Rajgarhia said in a statement.

Interestingly, Dharti is also one of the few art residencies that involve a critic-in-residence, so as to provide an "antithesis" so that the ideas could be refined.

This year, the in-house critic and residency programmer, Samira Bose, will work with the artists, moderate the programme and schedule as well as document their progress throughout the three months (May to August).

The final selection of artists was done by a jury comprising Hanif Qureshi, Premjish Achari and Samit Das along with members of the Foundation.

After the works are completed, the residency open studio will start from August 16. The artists and their artwork may be also be featured at the Foundation's annual arts festival in Goa, the curatorial panel of which was recently announced.
IANS