Mumbai: The state of Odisha/Orissa is going to be the venue of India’s first private sector Triennial. Titled ‘OTIA’ (Odisha Triennial of International Art) will be taking place in the three major cities of Odisha namely Bhuvneshwar, Puri and Konark where India’s national and the international art scene will converge.
OTIA is a brainchild of ANPIC (Artists Network for Promoting Indian Culture) headed by its Managing Trustee, Mr. Sashanka Mohapatra.
OTIA was formally launched in Bhubaneswar and New Delhi in May and June of this year. After its successful launch programs in Bhubaneswar and Delhi, in its third leg OTIA has reached Mumbai to declare the grand launch on 21st July 2018 at NGMA, Mumbai at 5:00pm
Chief Guest for this OTIA launch at NGMA Mumbai will be Lok Sabha- MP Mr Pinaki Mishra.
Dr Sarayu Doshi, Art Historian, Artist Prabhakar Kolte and veteran artist Lalita Lajmi will be the Guests of Honor. OTIA has roped in one of India’s topmost curator and art historian, JohnyML as its Curatorial Director. Mumbai based artist and Educationist, Rajendra Patil is the Mentor of OTIA. In this 40 days long mega art event, first of its kind ever in any Indian states, will have around hundred top most Indian artists representing various sections of art. Major artists namely Jatin Das, Sudhir Patwardhan, Prabhakar Kolte, K.S.Radhakrishnan, Ravinder Reddy, Jogen Chowdhury, Laxma Gowd and so on are expected to be a part of OTIA.
“Odisha is a culturally rich state and it has all the potential to host a mega event like OTIA. I have been observing the activities of Anpic in promoting Indian culture and their work based out of the crafts village of Raghuraj Pur in Odisha has been commendable. The state of Odisha is well equipped to receive the great personalities of Indian as well as international art. OTIA will give a natural boost to the Tourism and cultural infrastructure development of the state,” says Pinaki Misra, Hon.MP (Lok-Sabha), who is also a well wisher and advisor to the organisation Anpic.
Sashanka Mohapatra, the Founder Director of OTIA says, “Odisha has created several geniuses in art and culture. Each year Anpic will conduct national level exhibitions in the state integrating the temple cities and the folk and tribal spaces. While these state exhibitions are exclusively for national artists, OTIA is an international platform where the international artists could exhibit along with the national artists of India and the artists from the Odisha state in particular.”
“OTIA is a great challenge given to me and I plan to make it one of the most memorable experiences of the Indian art scene,” says Johny ML, the Curatorial Director designate of OTIA. “Most of the international events are generally high-browistic. They look down upon the local tastes and local aesthetics. I have envisioned an international Triennial in which the local aesthetics will stand shoulder to shoulder with the international art. My idea is to create a ‘glocal’ feeling about art and culture through the OTIA platform by integrating art, music, dance, theatre, film, craft and literature,” Johny ML underlines.
‘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 artists, Indian Modernists, International contemporary artists, Odisha folk and tribal artists, India’s contemporary experimental artists and the Graffiti and Performance artists.
OTIA assures that there will be a series of seminars involving experts and scholars from the fields of films, theatre, art, music, performance and new media art. The exhibitions in the OTIA will be catalogued and there will be collateral publications and programs during the Triennial.
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