As the year 2022 comes to an end on a high note, festival organisers have already started planning for the next year. Among the things we look forward to in 2023 is a new media extravaganza that will focus on light as a medium. The Mumbai Light Festival, scheduled for the first quarter of 2023, will be “a celebration of light, its magic and its possibilities”.
Put together by the Floating Canvas Company and supported by Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, it will bring together 17 established and emerging artists and feature exhibitions, workshops and panel discussions.
To give us a taste of what to expect, the organisers are holding a number of curtain raisers they’re calling the MLF Satellite Series. The events, which are taking place in intimate settings for a limited-capacity audience, showcase the work of a new artist or collective.
The preview series began this month with European multidisciplinary new media artist collective Tundra, which will present its immersive audiovisual experience ‘ROW’ at Mumbai’s Tao Art Gallery.
ROW was a holographic installation composed of a scalable and modular array of screens, which assume the form of a canvas that continually morphs in shape and length. Raw pictures translated by generative sound are echoed on this canvas with a short delay, resulting in a variety of flowing patterns that draw attention to and reflect the spatial qualities of the space in which it is installed.
Next in-ling is the ongoing show Once Upon a Time at G5 Warehouse. The show depicts the reimagining of a Gond folktale through the art of Padma Shri-awardee Durgabai Vyam, one of the leading names in the Pardhan Gond tradition of tribal art. Brought to life by ace animator Vishwesh Menon and set to the hypnotic tunes of Bana, a three-string fiddle played by Pardhan Gonds, this act is an attempt at pushing the boundaries when it comes to representing India's vast wealth of traditional lore and art forms.
While Vyam is known for her distinctive ability to tell stories from mythology and folklore from Burbaspur in Madhya Pradesh, Menon, on the other hand, is a self-taught musician, and animator with an illustrious experience.
Started earlier this year in September, MLF Satellite, so far, has hosted a standalone installations and experiences by artists who are pushing boundaries when it comes to light as a medium.
When: Ongoing till December 1. 10 am
Where: G5A Warehouse, Worli
Entry free
