6th ILF Samanvay to begin in New Delhi on Nov 5
NEW DELHI: The sixth edition of the Indian Languages Festival (ILF) Samanvay, which is scheduled to begin on November 5 here, will focus on languages like Urdu, Telugu, Gujarati, Santhali and Khasi. With the theme, “Language as Public Action,” the festival this year will seek to explore the “responsibility of the creative individual who speaks out in public.” “ILF Samanvay 2016 celebrates Urdu, Telugu, Gujarati, Santhali and Khasi in addition to Hindi and English, by giving them special attention and draw sustained engagement with them.
“The festival theme this year — Language as a public action — is expected to help identify the obligation of the public presenter towards the audience,” says Rizio Yohannan Raj, Creative Director of the festival. The three-day annual event at India Habitat Centre here, will see participation by over 40 artists, thinkers and actors, who will engage in discussions, sessions and workshops on different elements of language and its components like the arts, music, performance, technology along with the literary. With support from The Raza Foundation, an arts and culture organisation, the festival will also see ‘Art Articulations’ curated by Deeksha Nath and will feature seminal artists at the intersections of various artistic and critical sites.
“We are asking many questions: Does language as public action only mean ‘protest literature’; and activist slogans? What are the myriad ways in which ‘language’; comes into public play? “Where is the border between the public and the private in our times of communication revolution? How do art and other creative worlds understand public action and forge their languages?” says Rizio. Eminent social activist and founder of SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) Ela Bhatt will open the festival with by placing ’empowerment’ as a verb, and epitomise the ILF Samanvay ideal of transformative public expression. Other speakers will include transgender activist Abhina Aher, renowned puppeteer Anurupa Roy, film actor Swara Bhaskar, human rights and women’s rights activist Vrinda Grover, Telugu poet and writer Volga, social researcher Bela Bhatia, social activist and lawyer Jignesh Mevani and TV anchor, writer and journalist Ravish Kumar, among others. A thematic food counter called ‘Artist as Gourmet’, which will run parallel to the main event, will offer an experience of linguistic and cultural combination, by recreating the recommended recipes by authors, artists and other custodians of language. This year, the festival will also initiate discussions on how India interacts with “others” through a couple of international panels. For the first time, the festival hosted a series of curtain raising events over the last five months running up to the final event this month. Titled ‘No Tongues Barred’ conversation series, each event addressed unique aspects of using language in a responsible and informed manner. The open and free to all festival will come to an end on November 7. (PTI)