Three-day festival on textile history and literature in Bengaluru

A three-day festival focusing on the written word will be held over the weekend. Titled City Scripts, it is an annual literary event by Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS). Currently in its 9th edition, the event will see the participation of authors, artists and journalists.

This time around, the festival is curated around the theme, ‘Text and Tapestry — Knots, Loops, Stitches and Tangles’. The team was keen on shining a light on the city’s “rich textile industry, cultures of weaving and artistic practices centred around textile,” says Pooja Sagar, who leads Word Lab, IIHS, which hosts the festival. “We started thinking of text as an object that was woven together, where threads of the past and present intersect. We ran with this, and picked everything else that fit in,” she adds.

Over the course of three days, the festival will host panel discussions, conversations with authors, exhibitions, installations and performances. Author Karthik Venkatesh will discuss the origins of Indian languages in a chat with writer and journalist Amandeep Sandhu, while environmental activist Yuvan Aves will talk about his new book ‘Intertidal: A Coast and Marsh Diary’. In a panel discussion titled ‘Knots, Loops, Tangles: Exploring Bangalore through Textiles Panel Discussion’, artists Jeevan Xavier, Suresh Jayaram and Archana Hande will explore the textile history of the city. 

Spin your own yarn, a two-day workshop, and Bringing the ABCs home: A typographic speculation, are some of the workshops one can expect, says Sofia Juliet Rajan, consultant, Word Lab, IIHS. One can also look forward to the traditional leather puppetry performance or tholu bommalata by artistes from Andhra Pradesh. Titled Sutradhari, it is based on Ranganatha Ramayanamu’s ‘Sundara Kanda’. 

Interesting exhibitions include ‘Warp and Weft of Bangalore’ by JLX Studio (a documentary project that chronicles Bengaluru’s textile heritage) and ‘Patchwork City’ (a crochet work made of 280 square patches and granny squares stitched together representing themes explored in the festival) by Lubna Duggal.

May 10-12, at IIHS, Sadashivanagar. Entry free. For details, visit cityscripts.iihs.co.in