One grand celebration; two cities; 25 venues and more than 100 artistes.

An arts festival that seeks to celebrate the “spirited” connection between art and life in Bengal kicked off at Santiniketan on Friday.

The inaugural edition of Bengal Biennale is showcasing works of the great masters alongside young and contemporary artists. The festival in Santiniketan will go on till December 22. The Calcutta leg will be held between December 6 and January 5.

Bengal Biennale will include art exhibitions, musical performances, workshops and conversations. Abanindranath Tagore to Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, the festival boasts works of an eclectic mix.

Siddharth Sivakumar, a Calcutta-based art critic and writer, has curated the festival.

Anka Banka (Through Cross-Currents) is the central theme that connects the artists and determines the festival’s character.

“The phrase ‘Anka Banka’ conjures the image of a winding river or a serpentine path, forever shifting. It is an apt metaphor for life and art, where the journey is often more significant than the destination, where meaning is found in the curves and bends rather than in a straight line,” said the curatorial note.

Dayanita Singh, a photographer, will showcase her work at Indian Museum, while renowned author Devdutt Pattanaik will exhibit his unseen illustrations at Santiniketan. The Biennale will also showcase the performances of jazz musician Louiz Banks at Trincas on Park Street.

One of the exhibitions at Santiniketan is titled Gauri Lankesh’s Urgent Saaru. It
is a live cooking performance by Pushpamala N, an independent artist, writer and
curator, based in Bengaluru. It is an act of remembrance for the artiste’s close friend, journalist Gauri Lankesh, whose assassination in 2017 caused a nationwide outrage.

Gauri was the artist’s neighbour and a good cook who gave the artist several recipes. ‘Urgent Saaru’ means a quick curry that is dished up for unexpected guests.

Another exhibition, titled Water Tells/ Water Tales, by Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee and graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee and curated by Anshuman Dasgupta, is “premised on the idea that water has many tales to tell”.

At the inauguration, senior artist Sudhir Patwardhan said a Biennale in Bengal was long overdue. “I always look for reasons to come to Santiniketan. This ensures that I will be here once every two years,” he said.

A panel discussion featuring Bengal Biennale advisors, literary scholar Sukanta Chaudhuri and art critic R Siva Kumar, as well as participating artists Mithu Sen and Nikhil Chopra, marked the inaugural day. Academic Soumik Nandy Majumdar moderated the programme.

“We are trying to create an ecosystem where we can showcase our artists and place them next to the practitioners of contemporary art from different parts of India and, in time, different parts of the world. We have taken significant steps in both directions. Santiniketan is considered the cradle of all that is artistic in Bengal. It is wonderful to start here,” said Malavika Banerjee, trustee, Gameplan Foundation, which is organising the biennale.