The rains are only just reaching the capital and already the preparations have begun to celebrate the season. Red Earth’s Monsoon Festival is just one of the more exciting ways to do it. The Monsoon Festival, in its seventh year, has a multi-hued schedule that aims to celebrate the magic of the Indian monsoon with the old and the new, reviving forgotten traditional cultural practices and pioneering contemporary creative expressions, with a chance to enjoy visual art, fashion, theatre, walks, workshops, and markets.
“The monsoon in India is not just a season, but a complex cultural being, bringing alive the fertility of the Indian mind in art expressions ranging from visual art to poetry, music to drama; lived culture including festivals, food and the richness of human emotional response,” says festival curator Himanshu Verma.
This year, there are some exciting and innovative additions. Each event is designed to enhance some aspect of the season. The events are distributed under five essential subheads: design mela, visual art, walks, recitation and music. ‘Barsaati Walk’ is a unique and exciting concept where a resident living in a barsati opens his house to members of the walk. “The concept of a Barsati is a unique intellectual-cultural-romantic and lastly residential framework found in the capital. It is not just a residence type, but a cultural construct and, for us mad monsoon lovers, endlessly fascinating because its very name is derived from Barsaat (rain). As Delhi sees frantic building activity by the minute, this humble house type seems to be on the wane now”. The walk will take people to some of these barsatis in Delhi, exploring these residential spaces, and throw light on the origin and history of barsatis.
Another new concept is ‘Colour Walks’, which explores the trademark colours of the monsoon: blue and green. The first part will start at Subz Burj (Green Tower), the iconic monument on the traffic island at Nizamuddin, which is a 16th century unidentified Mughal era tomb. Subz Burj was named after the green tiles that once decorated its dome. When it was restored in 1980s, the dome’s decoration was reconstructed in blue tiles, a perfect monumental confusion to start the green-blue walk.
Part of the visual art section is Digital Malhaar, a site specific installation designed by architect-artist Ameet Singh, who uses the medium of space and sound to create intimate experiences. Ameet delves into the rich and dense world of the imagery of the monsoon — both immediate and abstract — to create a new multiple-media experience.
From rainy day music to an evening of multi-lingual poetry, songs and stories to a design mela, this festival is aimed towards being an inter-disciplinary, cross-arts, multi-sensory celebration of the varied awakenings and experiences of the Indian monsoon in the capital.
Bottomline: A chance to enjoy art, fashion, theatre, walks, workshops, and markets
The Monsoon Festival
When:July 28 to August 12
Where:Multiple venues across new DElhi
Website:
