By: Chahat Sharma
Every December, Goa transforms into a buzzing cultural retreat for the Serendipity Arts Festival. The festival is a citywide celebration where art spills out of galleries and onto the streets, riverfronts, and heritage buildings. The 10th edition promises more than 250 projects across theatre, music, food, and visual arts, but for photography lovers in particular, this year is shaping up to be one of the richest and most exciting chapters yet.
From long-standing archival traditions to bold contemporary interventions, from intimate family histories to global conversations around displacement, the 2025 Photography Exhibition invites visitors to explore lens-based practices that are reflective, political, deeply personal, and quietly revolutionary.
If you are planning your festival calendar, ACF gives you a definitive guide to the photography programming. You should not miss it!
1. Urban Reimagined
Curated by: Ravi Agarwal
Venue: Promenade
Dates: 14–21 December
Time: 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
This returning exhibition steps into its third iteration with a sharp, urgent lens on the word ‘urban’. What does a city mean in 2025, when ecological worlds shrink, waste multiplies, and capitalism remakes landscapes faster than communities can adapt?
Urban Reimagined explores this clash of imaginations: between what cities once were and what they are becoming. Expect striking works by Vivan Sundaram, including the powerful Barricade (with Mattress) 2008, and Rhea Lopez, who engage with the themes of waste, toxicity, and the invisible lives shaped by class and caste.
And in a beautiful twist, documentation created through the Counter Current: Unmapping Beauty at Torda Creek workshop will fold back into this exhibition, making it both a show and a living document created alongside the public.
2. Counter Current: Unmapping Beauty at Torda Creek
Conducted by: Rhea Lopez
Venue: Sensible Earth, Salvador do Mundo
Dates: 10–12 December
Time: 7:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Set in the serene village of Torda, this workshop uses counter-mapping and radical cartography to unpack a deceptively simple question: “What is beauty?”
Participants take part in meditations on aesthetics, guided walks, and a collective effort to create a counter-map of the creek. The final output becomes part of Urban Reimagined, allowing participants to see their contributions displayed within the exhibition.
3. Murmurations
Curated by: Ravi Agarwal
Venue: Old PWD Complex
Dates: 14–21 December
Time: 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Murmurations brings together artists whose works explore the planet’s quiet warnings: the rumblings of injustice, ecological shifts, and the barely audible signs of rupture that shape our future.
Special Highlight: Ekok by Shams Qabid (14 December, 5–6 PM)
A musical micro-program that brings stories of the Bengali-speaking Muslim “Miya” community of Assam through melody and memory.
4. Displacement
Curated by: Rahaab Allana
Venue: Old PWD Complex
Dates: 14–21 December
Time: 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
One of the most politically resonant exhibitions this year, Displacement grapples with shifting identities, migration histories, and the feeling of rootlessness that defines our times. Expect works shaped by street culture, journalism, folk art, and activist traditions.
5. There Are No Love Letters Here
Curated by: Prashant Panjiar & Tanvi Mishra
Venue: Old GMC Complex
Dates: 14–21 December
Time: 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
This deeply personal exhibition by Divya Cowasji reimagines an expansive Parsi family history through self-portraiture, ancestral objects, and performance.
6. Chari Waddo: An Echo of Time
Curated by: Prashant Panjiar
Venue: Old GMC Complex
Dates: 14–21 December
Time: 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Shot using the 1851 wet-plate collodion process, this exhibition documents the Chari community of Moira, a 300-year-old lineage of Goan woodworkers.
Vintage Photo Booth
Dates: 15 & 20 December
Venue: Foundation Space, Old GMC
Create your own handcrafted 5×7 black-and-white portrait with a vintage camera.
7. Feeling Home. Where is Home?
Curated by: Dinesh Khanna
Venue: Promenade
Dates: 14–21 December
Time: 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
This exhibition explores what “home” truly means. Experience memory, longing, absence, inheritance, and emotion, through the works of five photographers.
Why 2025 is a Landmark Year for Photography at SAF
With exhibitions stretching across the Old GMC, PWD Complex, and the Promenade, the photography programme mirrors the festival’s ethos: art that is accessible, socially grounded, and deeply intertwined with place.
From ecology to ancestry, from activism to slow analogue craft, SAF 2025 presents photography not just as documentation but as philosophy, performance, protest, and personal diary.
Whether you are a photography student, a professional, or someone who simply loves a powerful visual story, the Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 promises one thing, you will walk away seeing the world just a little differently.
