A play as part of the Vanam Arts Festival. Photo: Special Arrangement
April is a month of celebration for director Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Cultural Centre.
It is the birth month of BR Ambedkar, dalit history month And the time when the Vanam Arts Festival comes alive every year. “It demands pleasure,” says Vasugi Bhaskar, editor of Sapphire Publications and Magazine.
This is also when one sees the relatively young audience booing discussions on serious topics such as caste and the origins of Dalit philosophy in Sri Lanka. They sit quietly on the ground, lost in movies; and are often seen engaged in deep discourse while looking at pictures and painting canvases.
But this is not an anomaly, says Vasugi Bhaskar.
The fourth edition of the festival has just concluded; The curators say that each edition has proved that the festival has become a congregation of youth who actively engage with their political views.
Vasugi Bhaskar says that subaltern youth are tired of being portrayed in a sadistic lens.
“At a time when it is common to commodify the difficult civic life of downtrodden people, Vaanam aims to showcase a truer, perhaps stronger story of our people. Don’t we have a rich political and cultural heritage?” he asks.
Pa Ranjith and Mari Selvaraj
The 2023 edition of the Vanam Art Festival included a range of activities throughout the month, with youth volunteers leading the shows. A book exhibition, PK Rosy Film Festival, Nitham Art and Photography Exhibition, Dhamma Theater Festival and Varchol Dalit Literary Festival were some of the events, involving different Tamil associations, which drew huge crowds throughout the month. This time the focus was on breaking down barriers to accessible spaces in Chennai that are traditionally associated with upper caste glitz.
art for change
Held at the stunning Memorial Hall in George Town, Chennai, Vaanam’s photography and art exhibition titled Neetham had around 40 artists showcasing the everyday life of subaltern life.
While there has been Dalit art, film and literature, is photography a latecomer? “Historically, photographs were taken by many people from the Dalit community, but this is not classified as Dalit photography. This was apparently due to fear of problems. With the creation of this safe space, Nitham witnessed the discourse about an ‘insider and outsider’ lens for the visual medium,” says photographer M Palani Kumar, one of the curators of the exhibition.
While the photo exhibition looked at documenting the aspirational lives of transgender people, the paint showcase attempted to display ‘everything not shown in the gallery’.
Photography and Art Exhibition of Vanam Arts Festival Nitham
Another curator, photographer Jaisingh Nageswaran, says that with entries from Nepal, Maharashtra and Kerala, the team decided to promote several first-time photographers who had not exhibited elsewhere to encourage them.
A group of school students – all children of sanitation workers in Tamil Nadu – trained under Palani Kumar and showed their parents the day-to-day chores.
Vasugi Bhaskar says the literature festival also saw several panels by young, first-time writers, along with experts in the fields of writing and philosophy. “It obviously helped. The vibe was electric,” he says.
For future editions of Vaanam, Vasugi Bhaskar is confident that the conversation among today’s youth is not finding a resonance. “This festival is proof that different points of view can exist in beautiful pieces of art, theater and discussion,” he says.