Govandi Arts Festival: Reimagining inadequately built spaces through art and creativity

The five-day festival has been organised by Community Design Agency (CDA), along with the UK’s Lamplighter Arts CIC and Streets Reimagined and the British Council, and is part of the ‘India/UK Together, a Season of Culture’.

Preparations for the festival began nearly six months ago when 45 youngsters from Govandi were selected to work with Mumbai-based artists for a period of six months. The focus was on art forms like theatre, filmmaking, photography, public art, rap, and music, with rap seeing high demand with three of the seven mentors guiding mentees in rap.

In addition to this, there was also an artist residency programme wherein three artists Jerry Antony, Nisha Nair Gupta, and Meera Goradia worked with locals over the past few months to help them in telling the story of Govandi using their skill sets.

The hub of the preparation for the festival is Kitab Mahal, which started as a community library in the Natwar Parekh compound of Govandi in February 2022. The library – where one can read books or play games – has over the past year become popular with local kids.

Today, mentors have taken up one corner giving the final touches to their preparations and the computer is being used to edit videos. While in another corner, large lamps of various shapes – including one in the shape of an elephant head – are being prepared.

Dee Moxon from Lamplighter Arts said: “During the festival, a procession carrying all the lamps that we prepare will be taken out. Processions are powerful and hence they are used by religions and political parties. We want to use it to showcase the lights that are prepared here.”

Natasha Sharma, who along with Bhawna Jaimini, is the co-curator of the GAF, said: “The festival is about reclaiming space and identity. It is to show the world that there is more to Govandi than the negative connotations associated with it.”

Parveen Shaikh, now associated with the CDA, said that it was during a chance meeting with Sandhya Naidu Janardhan, founder and managing director of the CDA, nearly six years ago that led them to think about how they should be associating with Govandi.

“Naidu had once come to Govandi where we resided. She told us to take ownership of the place and to think of the surroundings as our own homes which had to be kept clean,” Shaikh said. The conversations set the ball rolling and gave birth to Kitab Mahal, saw two colourful murals come up in the area and eventually the festival.

Naidu said, “The CDA has engaged with Govandi residents since 2016, working alongside them to support social cohesion and reimagine inadequately built spaces. Art and creativity are central to our work there, so launching an arts festival feels like a natural, exciting evolution that will have a long-term, positive impact.”