Mazda Art Festival 2024 begins
HYDERABAD: The Mazda Art Festival at the State Gallery of Art, Madhapur, celebrates 200 works of emerging artists and 50 by established artists from across India. The three-day festival, conducted between September 20 and 22, is the brainchild of founders Dilnawaz and Vispi Tarapore. The Parsi couple launched the initiative in 2016 to empower budding artists and the name of the show refers to Ahura Mazda, the God of Zoroastrianism.
To the Tarapores, art is anything that expresses the divine. "Whenever there's war or a recession, art is often sidelined, considered non-essential," explained Vispi Tarapore. "We want to change that and bring art to the forefront. There are so many societal issues, from child abuse to mental health, that are often brushed under the carpet. Art addresses these, but it's rarely given a platform. About 97 per cent of the art world belongs to the emerging artist and we are here to embrace emerging artists and try to bridge the gap between them and established names."
The show features a motorbike installation custom-designed in the Japanese Ikebana art form. Customised by Eimor Customs (East India Motorcycle Revolution), their works dominated galleries 3 and 4. Founders Saikat Basu and Mrutyunjaya Dash, from West Bengal and Odisha, have merged their passions for motorcycles and art to create a custom motorbike and its parts, including helmets. The art on these motor parts and helmets was hand-painted with spray colours and depicted everything from Medusa to the phoenix to a scene from a ghat in Varanasi. "People tend to appreciate conventional art more," Dash said, yet their hand-painted designs on motor parts, helmets, and bikes are hard to overlook.
On the second floor was the live demonstration of calligraphy artist Poosapati Parameshwar Raju. He started his art journey with the Devanagari script and transformed it into brilliant visual forms.
Among the emerging talents making their debut was Abdul Rehma, a gym owner and first-time exhibitor. His two pencil sketches were among the first works in Gallery 1. The first, ‘No Shades of Grey’, portrays a black-and-white horse in an embrace. "There are no shades of grey in a relationship," Rehma explained. The second piece, a portrait of Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, who passed away earlier this year, uses shades of grey to explore the theme of life after death.
Women artists also had a strong presence at the festival, with Shanthi Vinjamuri’s works particularly standing out. With a career spanning 40 years, her art – reminiscent of Cubism and Picasso but with a distinctly feminine edge – featured bold colours and flowing lines.
This year also marked the launch of the Mazda Art Grants, a merit-based initiative designed to provide financial aid to artists. "We have a jury in place to ensure the winners are selected based on merit," Vispi explained. The grants, totalling `12 lakh, will be awarded to 14 artists on the festival’s final day.
The visitors included an eclectic mix of people, including college students with interesting perspectives. "Artists often undervalue themselves, that's what I gather from these exhibitions," remarked Upasana Jani, a third-year BFA student at Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University, adding, "Some of these artworks were great but so underpriced."
The artworks were priced in various ranges but Jani’s statement raised the question: what exactly is the value of art? Perhaps we shall never truly know. But the Mazda Art Festival serves as a reminder of the true worth of art irrespective of whether it is from the established three per cent or the emerging 97 per cent.