Panaji, Dec 21 (PTI) Be it the ten-headed demon king Ravana flexing his arms at the movement of a gym equipment or Lord Ganesha hovering above ground by operating another, a menagerie of mythological characters is part of an art installation in front of the Old GMC Building here.

Put together for the fifth Serendipity Arts Festival, the 'Incarnation Park' is an attempt by artist Diptej Vernekar to bring the mythical characters to public spaces and also to break the "gendered reach" to the mechanism behind them.

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Vernekar's village Cumbarjua to the east of Panaji is known for its Shigmotsav, Ganesh Chaturthi and Sangodotsav celebrations that extensively use these moving artforms in the style of tableaux.

His only grievance against the much-loved artform: it has kept everyone from getting up close and personal, except for the men who make and manoeuvre it.

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"Since my childhood, I have been seeing these structures at every festival. It made me curious as to what technology moved them. Gradually I came to know that there were several men who would use a manual mechanism from underneath or behind the objects. There are never any women involved in the process," Vernekar told PTI.

By installing the 'Incarnation Park' at one of the busiest areas in central Panaji, Vernekar has attempted to bring the mythology as well as the mechanism to the common public.

"This installation subverts the gendered nature of the process of moving these artefacts by making it accessible to the general public, as an outdoor gym of incarnations,” he added.

While Ravana requires a seated cable row machine to be operated for movement, another set of mythological characters move when a cable crossover machine is used.

"Through this intervention, I hope to illustrate the idea of an outdoor gym as the cultivator of an urban ethos and as a mechanism to open up access to various living craft traditions and the local technologies behind them," Vernekar said.

The nine-day multidisciplinary festival saw a plethora of arts across exhibitions, performances, workshops, public arts, children's programming, talks and book launches.

Vernekar's installation was a part of 'The Island That Never Gets Flooded' -- a public arts project by Serendipity Arts Grant. It also featured artists like Amche Mollem, Julien Segard, Nityan Unnikrishnan, Salil Chaturvedi and Tinu Verghis.

Under this project, Serendipity Arts invited nominations for local artists to create new interventions and immersions using sites, localities, and technology through interdisciplinary practices in Panaji.

The Serendipity Arts Festival will come to a close on December 23.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)