It’s back and it’s even more unique this time around. Abhivyakti, The City Arts Project – Ahmedabad, has announced its fifth edition and the theme this year is ‘Every Story Matters’. The Abhivyakti festival is the brainchild and an endeavour of the UNM Foundation of the Torrent Group’s Mehta family. Keeping with the family’s ethos to give back to the society, Abhivyakti, The City Arts Project aims to make art an integral part of the social fabric of Ahmedabad by enabling access to audiences with a free entry. The idea is to make art accessible to everyone without constraint of location, thresholds (physical and individual) and social or economic strata.
Year after year, Abhivyakti has been receiving overwhelming support and participation from artists and art enthusiasts, which is a testament to the significance of this platform. With over 250 artists and an estimated 1,00,000 attendees, the community is growing stronger each year. For the fifth edition of the festival, applications for visual arts and music are open till June 7.
Abhivyakti encompasses many myriad art forms ranging from dance, music, painting, photography, installations and theatre.
PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
It is pertinent to mention that Abhivyakti, and the people behind it, are committed to presenting unique and exclusive ideas, carefully selected and curated through a rigorous process. The festival invites artists to submit their proposals, engaging them in a dialogue with curators to bring their ideas to life. A distinguished team of curators oversee each vertical dance, music, theater, and visual arts. Every curator is passionate about bringing diverse stories to life, as evidenced by their impressive artistic backgrounds and achievements.
One such distinguished personality is Chirag Modi, the curator for Theatre. He is a director, writer, and polished voice-over artist with 17 years of experience. He has mentored emerging artists and helped them hone their artistic skills. Then there is Dhara Dave, the Visual Arts curator, who is an adept artist with a passion for capturing the ethereal and challenging biases in beauty perception through her work. As a curator, she aims to present narratives authentically and without bias.
Team Abhivyakti also welcomes once again Bhargav Purohit as a music curator for this edition. He is a music maestro with a passion for storytelling. His lyrics and screenwriting are captivating and empowering, creating a space to enable collaboration. The dance curator, Jaimil Joshi, has mastered the art of narrative on stage and seeks to showcase lesser-known dance forms in this edition. He aims to stir audiences through his meticulous observations of society.
Last but not the least, there is Kathanki Raval, the Assistant Dance curator for this edition. She weaves her journey into her performances to convey compelling stories to the audience. She aims to bring distinct classical dance forms to the people. Abhivyakti, is poised to open a new chapter in the Art and Cultural Landscape of Ahmedabad and as a festival to look forward to.
