Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology

The Festival of Kabir in end February 2009 was a week-long festive yet critical immersion in the ideas of the 15th century mystic weaver poet Kabir, through a series of film screenings, live music concerts by folk, classical and Sufi singers from India and Pakistan, discussions, seminars, poetry readings, an exhibition and out-reach events in colleges, institutions of higher education, socio-cultural and religious communities in and around the city of Bangalore.

The festival proved to be an opportunity for audiences to experience the joy of Kabir in song, while engaging with the radically transformative power of his poetry. It offered a powerful encounter with the philosophy of Kabir, generating moments of critical self-awareness and reflection on ideas of cultural identity and social divisions, death and impermanence, oral traditions and the nature of knowledge. It offered an opportunity for singers from diverse musical and cultural traditions in India and Pakistan to come together in one performative space and share and exchange notes on the oral traditions of Kabir that they represent.

This event was the culmination of a 6-year-long artist-in-residency project at Srishti by filmmaker Shabnam Virmani consisting of a series of musical journeys in quest of the socio-political and spiritual legacy of Kabir in our contemporary worlds. This project has been supported by the Ford Foundation and has resulted not only in the production of a series of films, music CDs and books, but also many relationships, workshops, festivals and social networks.

The event brought together a range of artists, singers and scholars through whose collaboration the Kabir Project became possible and it initiates new dialogues and synergies that go beyond the event.

Envisioned as a multi-partnered event, in which many institutions and community-based groups interacted with the singers of Kabir, the event has opened future opportunities for performative practice for the artists.

The screenings in conjunction with seminars/panel discussions with a range of thinkers and practitioners allowed an interface between Kabir’s voice/spiritual traditions on the one hand and mental health practices, caste and social movements, secularism and identity politics on the other.

While the highlight was the performance of the Sufi singers brought over from Pakistan, Srishti made the event an opportunity for hosting students of art and design thus adding another layer of cross-cultural, trans-border exchanges that would widen the perspectives of all those involved.

A range of events, as part of this festival were held in satellite locations around Bangalore and the central venue. They revolved around the four recently completed feature-length musical documentary films made by Shabnam and the presence of fine singers of Kabir in our midst.