A play as part of Vaanam Art Festival. Photo: Special arrangement
April is a month of celebration for director Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Cultural Centre.
It is BR Ambedkar’s birth month, Dalit history month and the time when Vaanam Art Festival comes alive each year. “It demands joy,” says Vasugi Bhaskar, the editor of Neelam publication and magazine.
It is also when one sees a relatively young audience hoot for discussions on serious topics such as caste in Sri Lanka and the origin of Dalit philosophy. They sit on floors in silence, lost in the films they are watching; and are often seen engaging in intense discourse while viewing photos and paint canvases.
But this is not an anomaly, says Vasugi Bhaskar.
The fourth edition of the festival has just concluded; the curator says that each edition has proved that the festival has become a congregation of youngsters who actively engage with their political thought.
Vasugi Bhaskar says that the subaltern youth is tired of being portrayed in a sorrow-filled lens.
“At a time when it is common to commodify the difficult civil lives of Dalit people, Vaanam aims at showcasing a truthful, perhaps empowering narrative of our people. Do we not have a rich political and cultural heritage?” he asks.
Pa Ranjith and Mari Selvaraj
The 2023 edition of Vaanam Art Festival comprised a host of activities through the month with young volunteers helming the show. A book exhibition, the PK Rosy Film Festival, the Niththam Art and Photography Exhibition, the Dhamma Theatre Festival and Verchol Dalit Literary Festival were some of the events, with distinct Tamil associations, that drew in massive crowds through the month. The focus this time was to break barriers at accessible locations in Chennai that are conventionally associated with the upper caste glare.
Art for change
Held in the stunning Memorial Hall in Chennai’s George Town, Vaanam’s photography and art exhibition titled Niththam had about 40 artists exhibiting the everydayness of subaltern lives.
While there has been Dalit art, film and literature, has photography been late to the scene? “Historically, many people from the Dalit community had taken pictures, but it hasn’t been categorised as Dalit photography. This was obviously because of the fear of problems. With this safe space being created, Niththam saw discourse regarding an ‘insider and outsider’ lens to the visual medium,” says photographer M Palani Kumar, one of the curators of the exhibition.
While the photo exhibit saw a documentation of the aspirational lives of transgender people, the paint showcase attempted to display ‘everything not shown at galleries’.
Niththam, the photography and art exhibition of Vaanam Art Festival
Photographer Jaisingh Nageswaran, another curator says that with entries from Nepal, Maharashtra and Kerala, the team decided to promote several first-time photographers who had not displayed elsewhere in a bid to encourage them.
A bunch of school students — all children of conservancy workers in Tamil Nadu — trained under Palani Kumar and showcased their parents doing day-to-day work.
Vasugi Bhaskar says that the literary festival too saw several panels moderated by young, first-time writers with experts in the field of writing and philosophy. “It clearly helped. The vibe was electric,” he says.
For the future editions of Vaanam, Vasugi Bhaskar is confident of conversations among the youth of today not becoming an echo-chamber. “The festival is testament that different perspectives can exist in beautiful pieces of art, theatre and discussion,” he says.
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