24 May 2024 to 08 Jun 2024
An exhibition of the inaugural recipients of the VM Salgaocar Fellowship & Emerging Artist Grants 2022-23 which showcased the ongoing research and investigations by Afrah Shafiq, Nalini Elvino de Sousa and Kalpit Gaonkar.
In our commitment to building a more inclusive and critically engaged society, a key area of our work at Sunaparanta has been to support cultural operators producing work that stimulate cultures of change. Following a year of dedicated research and creative exploration, this retrospective serves as a platform to celebrate the innovative contributions of emerging artists and cultural practitioners based in Goa.
We are proud to recognize the exceptional achievements of our grantees. Afrah's video game The Bride Who Could Not Stop Crying (2023) offers players a unique narrative experience, where choices shape the emotional journey of the protagonist, reflecting the complexities of familial relationships and cultural expectations. Nalini’s documentary Kantar Goa provides an insight into the evolution of Konkani songs, tracing their journey from traditional performances to modern media platforms, and continue to hold significance today, illustrating the essence of Goan culture through the cantaram's enduring legacy. Kalpit’s contribution presents a documentation of the evolving tribal landscape of Goa and beyond. His progressive project, Tracing the Dust unveils cultural collisions, capturing the idealistic essence of tribal life amidst political and cultural influences. It culminates in an exploration of Utopian tribal culture and the evolution of faith, offering viewers an insight into the intricacies of indigenous traditions.
The preview and walkthrough by the grantees was followed by a performance Kantaram on Vinyl by Leaxan Freitas, a professional dedicated to preserving Goa's Art Deco heritage through documentation and engaging Art Deco Walks. Beyond these pursuits, he is a Vinyl record selector and collector who loves to share Goan culture through music.
Afrah Shafiq is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Goa, India. Her work takes hybrid forms that bring together text, sound, animation, code, and sculpture to create interactive, sometimes simulated atmospheres to experience and unlearn. She often seeks ways to retain the tactile within the digital and the poetry within technology. Afrah’s work has been included in the Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh, 2023; Video Art Pavilion at the Asian Art Biennale, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, 2022; Lahore Biennial (LB02), Lahore Pakistan; 2019; Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India, 2018; WorldBuilding: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist At Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf and Centre Pompidou-Metz; Very Small Feelings at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, among other exhibitions in India and globally.
Nalini Elvino de Sousa delves wholeheartedly into projects concerning education and media. She has been directing, anchoring, and producing documentaries for RTPi - Portuguese international television and produces short films and series for local television under the banner of Lotus Film & TV Production. She is the manager and Portuguese teacher at the association Communicare Trust and is now pursuing a career as an ethnomusicologist at INETmd (Aveiro University, Portugal).
Kalpit Gaonkar’s work involves the process of archiving his personal, cultural and social heritage and surroundings, using it to invoke a more global and universal voice. He bears an emotional affinity with the cultural history of his native place and roots in Goa. His practice attempts at keeping the history alive into his narration of the past in the present, documenting it for the future. He observes, studies, documents, executes and translates the dying cultural and social history in his audio/visual language, juxtaposing biographical and universal concerns.