Behala Art Fest 2022: Streets of Kolkata come alive with stunning wall paintings

Streets of the City of Joy have once again come alive with stunning artworks as the third edition of Behala Art Fest kickstarted on February 25, in Kolkata’s Behala area. Organised Nutan Sangha, the much-anticipated art festival is showcasing works of several well-known arts, and will go on till February 27.
This year, the theme of the festival is ‘Light and darkness’ with arts sharing their innovative ideas of light and darkness in today’s time.
The theme is Light and darkness. (Express Photo Shashi Ghosh)
Highlighting subaltern culture and subaltern art, the festival organisers intend to portray modern times, and its politics and culture, at this curated street art show.
It’s a three-day art festival. (Express Photo Shashi Ghosh)
“Zen Z of Behala Nutan Sangha and I decided to do something which may speak for the times ahead. So, we determined to start a curated art festival, and being a practising art, it was decided that I should take the responsibility as the convenor of the fest. Being a practising art, I have had some privilege to understand where we, the art, mainly belong,” convener Sanatan Dinda said.

The art festival started on February 25. (Express Photo Shashi Ghosh)
He added: “We all have positive and effective ways and some not-so-promising spaces within the art field. Like, till today, we focus too much on formal training and skill development. Analytical studies and critical thinking have not been much in our practice.”
The fest is showcasing works of 28 arts. (Express Photo Shashi Ghosh)
This three-day art festival is showcasing works of 28 arts and is open to all without any entry free.

The organisers aimed to create this art festival as inclusive, democratic and unbiased as possible. (Express photo Shashi Ghosh)
“We mostly come to know about the world Masters of painting, sculpture, music, or even cinema when we pursue that particular course of studies. So it takes almost a lifetime to perceive those thoughts critically. Though none of these is in our hands, we cannot change how it is. But what we could do is make another space where this kind of critical thought will be practised,” Dinda said, explaining the importance of such art festivals.
It is open to all without any fee. (Express photo Shashi Ghosh)
Calling Behala Art Fest a “much-needed public forum”, he said, “It is a democratic space for unbiased conversation to take place. A public space where arts from different practices – be it painting, sculptures, music, performance — can come and address the mass.”
The festival was first organised in 2020. (Express photo Shashi Ghosh)
The organisers aimed to create this art festival as inclusive, democratic and unbiased as possible.

Arts were given workshops prior to the festival. (Express photo Shashi Ghosh)
Since it’s a curated art festival, professors and lecturers from different universities helped provide workshops to the arts prior to the festival.
The festival is featuring some stunning wall paintings. (Express photo Shashi Ghosh)
However, the pandemic posed several challenges while organising the fest this year. “During the pandemic, we could only provide 5 to 6 workshops with literature and documents for further studies, but we intend to extend that further,” Dinda said.
Art Sanatan Dinda is the convener of the fest. (Express photo Shashi Ghosh)
“Another essential feature of a Behala Art Fest is a non-commercial platform. that, I mean we do not pressure the art under any circumstances to sell an idea or artwork in any form to another entity. Our job as a committee is to give an art a free hand. Working with Behala art fest is a choice but also maintaining rules and being guided the moderators comes as a responsibility. The moderator decides to include any particular artwork or exclude them genuinely based on merit,” he said.
The streets of Kolkata are brought back to life with these artworks. (Express photo Shashi Ghosh)
The organisers hope to make it more inclusive and flexible in the coming years “to accommodate different arts from different principles”.

What do you think about these mesmerising artworks? (Express photo Shashi Ghosh)
“We can foresee that the connection between the public and arts will grow more robust than before if we stick to the principles. Community practice will be stronger and bolder in the same way,” he concluded.
While in 2020, the festival focused on the theme ‘Behula’, the character from Manashamangal, last year, the theme was ‘How tomorrow might be’.
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