About the Festival
Saptasajya Festival 2022 is the Saptasajya Foundation’s endeavour to promote folk craftsand help the craftspeople experiment with new designs. The objective is to help improve the commercial value of these traditional crafts.
In its third edition, the festival will bring together 50 local artisans, art and design practitioners and students and marketeers in a four day experiential workshop.
The 2022 edition will be held on December 26-30 at Saptasajya in Odisha.
Curator of the Festival
Sidharth is an alumni of NIFT, Bengaluru and an empanelled designer under the Ministry of Textiles, Govt. Of India. He has a working experience of 17 years in the industry. During this period he has worked as a designer for exports and Indian retail industry for several years.
He also has a wide experience of working in the handloom and handicraft sector with the Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India. Additionally, he is also an academician and has been working with some of the premiere design institutes like NIFT, NID, KIIT etc as a faculty to train the next generation of designers.
He is the co-founder of "Artistrē", a brand that designs and manufactures handcrafted products, thus supporting artisans. He has been a part of various festivals and fairs supporting the cause of handlooms and handicrafts. Ex - Toshali International Crafts Fair, BAT, Saptasajya Festival etc.
Since 2010, he has been settled in Odisha to work for the handicrafts and textiles of this culturally rich state. He also aims to take efforts in strengthening the design sector of Odisha through many collaborations and experiments.
Visitor Profile
- Artisans: The artisan category comprises six groups of metal craftspeople from across Odisha, along with other artisans who can add value, through their inputs around innovative designs.
- Mentors: Mentors include designers and marketing executives, who can contribute to the evolution of modern, marketable designs through interactions with craftspeople.
- Volunteers: The volunteer category includes project coordinators, writers, photographers and other contributors who ensure that the festival runs smoothly.
- Guests: Guests are metalcraft connoisseurs who are interested in learning more about Odisha’s rich heritage.
Our Approach
In an era of accelerated technological development and industrial manufacturing, Odisha celebrates its organic, rustic, and colourful forms of traditional arts and crafts – thriving in every nook and corner of the state. Accommodating new materials, Odisha’s artisans have managed to keep age-old methods and techniques alive.
The convergence of a mastered skill and technique with the science of innovation to meet modern tastes and needs thus enhances the practice of creative visual expression.
Today, standing up for crafts has a more complex meaning. Craft is understood as a means to connect the heritage of the past to our present. Here, it is crucial to recognize how both the practices strengthen each other: Design as a process engineered to develop function foremost and derive beauty from it can be best implemented through material dexterity of the craftsmen. On the other hand, craftspeople who have been in the continuum of refining and exercising inherent systems receive the platform and exposure they deserve to sustain themselves in the modern world.
Any product or artwork development requires a prototype. It is not about romanticizing craft but about highlighting the uniqueness and identity, while devising a new manner of articulation.
Saptasajya Festival 2019 is an initiation in this direction. A collaboration of craftsmen with designers and artists. It aims to create an experience beyond the visual and cerebral, that of the tactile. It will situate itself at the confluence of the two faculties of materiality and concept.
The idea is to inspire and promote the practices that emerge out of the local communities and history, to consolidate itself with the practices that emerge out of the contemporary. The participants will involve themselves in dialogues, research and documentation of the intricacies of visual, material and cultural impressions and expressions.
The curatorial concept refers to the understanding of this confluence of the traditional and contemporary. The festival further aims to inculcate a new sense of approach of the craftspeople towards their practice and inspire them to explore new possibilities. The produced works will be exhibited besides traditional pieces, in order to draw a lineage to Odisha’s cultural practices and extend the notion of Saptasajya Festival 2019.
