Bhubaneswar: Odisha will host India’s first private sector Triennial. Titled ‘OTIA’ (Odisha Triennial of International Art) will be held in the three major places of Odisha – Bhubaneswar, Puri and Konark in December 2018.
OTIA is the brainchild of ANPIC (Artists Network for Promoting Indian Culture). OTIA was formally launched in Bhubaneswar May 2018 and OTIA made its announcement Thursday at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.
Puri Lok Sabha MP Pinaki Misra and Jeffrey Sexton, Minister Counsellor of Public Affairs, the US Embassy, New Delhi, were the chief guests.
OTIA has roped in one of India’s topmost curators and art historians, Johny ML, as its Curatorial Director. Rajendra Patil, Faculty at the JJ School of Art, Mumbai is the Mentor Director of OTIA, Kshitish Das, an artiste, is Programme Coordinator, Sumitra Mohapatra, Social Entrepreneur is Executive Director, and Bikram Keshari Praharaj is the Financial Director of OTIA.
The 40-day-long mega art event, the first of its kind in any Indian state, will have around 100 top most Indian artistes representing various arts. Major artistes namely Jatin Das, Sudhir Patwardhan, Prabhakar Kolte, KS Radhakrishnan, Ravinder Reddy, Jogen Chowdhury, Laxma Gowd among others are expected to be part of OTIA.
“Odisha is a culturally rich state and has the potential to host a mega event like OTIA. I have been observing the activities of ANPIC in promoting Indian culture and their work from the crafts village of Raghuraj Pur in Odisha has been commendable. Odisha is well equipped to receive the great personalities of Indian as well as international art. OTIA will give a boost to tourism and cultural development,” said Pinaki Misra, who is also a well wisher and advisor of ANPIC.
Sashanka Mohapatra, the Founder Director of OTIA said, “Odisha has created several geniuses in art and culture. Every year ANPIC will conduct national exhibitions in the state integrating the temple cities and folk and tribal spaces. While these state exhibitions are exclusively for national artistes, OTIA is an international platform where international artistes could exhibit along with artistes of India and Odisha.”
“OTIA is a great challenge and we are going to make it one of the memorable experiences in the Indian art scene,” said Johny ML, the Curatorial Director designate of OTIA.
“Most of the international events are generally high-brow. They look down upon local tastes and aesthetics. We have envisioned an International Triennial in which local aesthetics will stand shoulder to shoulder with international art. Our idea is to create a ‘Global’ feeling about art and culture through OTIA by integrating art, music, dance, theatre, film, craft and literature,” Johny ML stressed.
‘Conceive-Contemplate-Communicate’ (3Cs) is the slogan of OTIA. ‘When East met West’, ‘It’s Indian, by the way’, ‘Turning the Wheel’, ‘Gods of the Earth’, ‘Sapiens’, ‘In This Great Future’ and ‘Along the Way’ are the seven sections which would bring in Indian contemporary artistes , modernists, international contemporary artistes, Odisha folk and tribal artistes, India’s contemporary experimental artistes and graffiti and performance artistes.
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