he strains of music and the rhythm of the dance steps against the setting sun make the Chapel of Our Lady of the Mount one of the most beautiful of locations for a festival of music. And the Monte Music Festival has turned iconic for not just the ambience, but for the high quality of performances. This year, the festival had the added lustre of a jubilee, as the organizers of the festival, the Fundacão Oriente completed 25 years in Goa, and in attendance was the foundation’s chairman of the board of directors, Carlos Monjardino.
It was in 1995 that the foundation opened its delegation office in Fontainhas Panjim, in a heritage house that was restored especially for the purpose. From then the premises have hosted a variety of programmes – from lectures, to discussions, to book releases, to musical soirees, bringing alive the cultural aspects of the exchanges between Portugal and the east including India.
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“We came here at a difficult time. President Mario Soares asked me to set up here, and we were tactful of the way we installed ourselves here. We understood the political context of the place and we acted accordingly, and followed a normal path, without any problems,” Monjardino said, seated at the foundation office in Panjim. And then he added, “Now the situation is different as the relations between Portugal and India are much better.”
In the past two and a half decades, Portugal and India have become closer, and accompanying that journey, but in a very different manner, was the Fundacão Oriente, playing a completely non-political role, but at the forefront of the cultural exchanges.
Admitting that you can’t measure the role that the foundation has played in improving the relations between the two countries, Monjardino said, “I think the Portuguese artistes that we brought here and the Indian artistes that we took to Portugal, made a difference. Also, the renovation of churches and Hindu temples we undertook made people look at us differently. We don’t talk politics and we are not supposed to. We are a cultural foundation and we respect the culture of the place where we are.”
One project, perhaps financially the most expensive that the foundation undertook in Goa, was the restoration of the Chapel of the Mount at Old Goa. “Capela do Monte was something we did with great pleasure. Now we have to talk again if the authorities want us to get involved in the renovation, because there is need for renovation inside.” Their heritage interventions didn’t end there, but involved also the Saptakoteshwar temple in Bicholim taluka.
After 25 years in Goa, and focusing projects mainly in the State, the foundation is now considering to expand its works in the rest of India. “We will continue to do what we are doing in Goa, but do something more outside Goa,” Monjardino said. Very soon the Antonio Xavier Trindade collection of paintings that is on permanent display at the foundation’s delegation office in Panjim will travel for an exhibition to the National Gallery of Modern Art Gallery in New Delhi.
There is much in store for the future, but Monjardino will not reveal all of it just yet. “The way we are working, we do something different every year. I think it is better not to have projects with pre-conceived ideas,” he said, leaving the future open to decisions of what is to be done.
