Team Herald
PANJIM: Two exhibits of a Mangalore-based artist were closed for viewing at the Serendipity Art Festival on Thursday for allegedly touching upon the topics – Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The action comes after the arrest of four members of popular music band “Dastaan” for allegedly hurting religious sentiments during a performance at the event on Wednesday.
Sources informed that both the exhibits curated by Mangalore-based contemporary artist Sudarshan Shetty were closed for viewing.
Titled “Look outside the House,” the exhibits displayed at old Goa Medical College building are a part of installation curated by Shetty.
Sources informed that one of the exhibits closed for viewing has visual depiction of Miyah poetry verse, an Assamese genre of poetry that captures anger towards discrimination of Assamese Muslims.
Another exhibit by Shetty closed for viewing involved liberty for the visitors to write graffiti of their choice with the unique black ink on canvass. As the debate on the controversial act, the graffiti had slogans against Citizenship Amendment Act and NRC by visitors.
Shetty’s third exhibit “Goggles for the Blind”, an innovation by a North-Eastern youth, which works on ultrasound and infrared sensors to help visually impaired detect obstacles on their path, could not be exhibited in the festival as it failed to reach due to chaos in the region.
“Due to ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in the North-East, we could not procure the “Goggles for the Blind”, in time for his show,” reads a note put up by organisers at the gallery.
On Wednesday, Sumant Balakrishnan, Anirban Ghosh, Shiva Pathak and Nirmala Ravindera, members of the band ‘Dastaan’, were arrested under Section 295-A of the Indian Penal Code (hurting religious feelings).
