Serendipity Arts to participate in Great Exhibition Road Festival in London

Image for representational purpose only. Photo Courtesy: File pic

A multidisciplinary film by composer Sneha Khanwalkar and artist Sudarshan Shetty, along with a giant puppet procession by veteran puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee, will headline Serendipity Arts' formal participation in the Great Exhibition Road Festival in London from June 5 to 7.

The two public art projects will be presented in partnership with the Science Museum and as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival, commemorating 175 years since the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Delhi-based not-for-profit cultural organisation has announced.

On June 5, "Eyes Shall Deceive" (Nainan ki Thaggi), commissioned and produced by Serendipity Arts,

will premiere at Innovation Lates, the Science Museum's after-hours programme.

Conceived as an immersive multidisciplinary performance, the film brings together Khanwalkar and Shetty in a dynamic interplay of live music, sound, visual storytelling, and performance. Inspired by informal musical folklore and street performance traditions across contemporary Indian cities, the work explores memory, illusion, and collective experience through an evocative audiovisual environment.

The film moves through four phases across the museum's galleries, from the Zaha Hadid Sculpture Alcove to the IMAX Theatre, with live musicians performing alongside the film.

Extending beyond the museum and into the public, "Giants on the Move", directed by Pudumjee, will animate Exhibition Road as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival on June 6-7.

Featuring a large-scale public procession of giant puppets, live percussion, and moving sculpture, the project draws from India's rich heritage of artisanal puppet-making to reimagine the street as a shared civic stage-inviting audiences into an immersive celebration of movement, participation, and public art.

Smriti Rajgarhia, director, Serendipity Arts, said that through the collaboration with the Science Museum and the Great Exhibition Road Festival, the organisation is exploring "how artistic experiences can move across formats and spaces, from immersive works within the museum to large-scale public interventions on the street".

"Through projects such as 'Eyes Shall Deceive' and 'Giants on the Move', we hope to show how art can move fluidly between settings, shifting from the intimacy of the museum to the openness of the street. In doing so, these works create participatory, layered, and accessible moments that invite audiences to engage with

contemporary artistic practices in new and unexpected ways," she said in a statement.

The Great Exhibition Road Festival is a free annual celebration of science and the arts each summer in South Kensington, London, with hands-on workshops, talks, performances and installations from iconic museums, research and culture organisations, including Imperial College London, the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and the Royal Parks.

John Lavery, secretary, Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, said that the collaboration will bring "vibrancy, passion and performance" to the Great Exhibition Road Festival weekend.

"As a significant partner and participant of the Great Exhibition Road Festival, The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 is delighted that the Science Museum and the Festival are joining forces with Serendipity Arts to add even more wonder, spectacle and colour to South Kensington. This collaboration between science and art

across 2 nations, both with a global audience...will hopefully be the start of a great cultural alliance," Lavery said.

With the London showcase, Serendipity Arts expands its international programme further across Europe and the UK.

As part of the Indian pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Serendipity Arts, the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre and the Ministry of Culture are showcasing "Geographies of Distance: Remembering Home", curated by Amin Jaffer, that "explores home not as a fixed physical location, but as an emotional space carried within the self, a repository of culture, personal mythology and emotion".

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