Exhibition
Discovering Ganesh includes a series of vivid color photographs, video shorts and re-created shrines which convey the beauty and significance of the Ganesh Chaturthi as celebrated in Bombay. This ten-day festival honors Ganesh, the Lord of Beginnings, Patron of the Arts and Remover of Obstacles. To offer an immediate experience of the festival, there will be five looped video shorts that capture the various stages of the festival. The first stage consists of the creation of plaster-of-Paris sculptures and their installation in homes and public places, called mandips. The next stage includes the ritual invocations of Ganesh whereby each sculpture transforms into an “idol” after a series of sung and spoken prayers. During the festival there are spontaneous outbreaks of song and dance which occur in the streets, unapologetic assaults on passers-by of colored powder, and a palpable sense of deep devotion and sanctity. The event culminates in a lively and passionate procession of thousands of Ganesh statues which are submerged into the Arabian Sea. The symbolic dissolving of Ganesh into the water ensures he will return again the next year.
Please visit the gallery of festival photographs