'What is Auroville', a month-long festival of Auroville’s multifarious activities, including the community’s achievements in arts, culture, handicrafts, alternative technologies and a variety of innovative approaches to societal living, will be held across various locations in Chennai during March 2015! The festival intends to showcase Auroville in a nutshell, giving the participants a direct experience of the flavour and essence of ‘What is Auroville’. It aims to provide a wide range of lively information and insights through its many events, cultural programmes, exhibitions, workshops, discussion forums and seminars.
The festival will give a lot of exposure on subjects such as afforestation, organic agriculture, educational research, holistic health care, small and medium-scale business, arts and craft and renewable energy. From March 1st to April 17th, several events will be held as a part of the festival across key locations in the city.
Said Ms. Elaine Philips, a member of the Festival Committee, “Auroville to outsiders is more like a group of foreigners living together in scattered settlements, attached to the Aurobindo Ashram. However, in reality, Auroville is a vibrant laboratory for conscious living and a testing ground for holistic evolution of humans in harmony with the earth. It is with this idea of sharing this unique experiment out to the world that the Auroville Festival was conceptualized. After the success of the festival in Delhi in 2012, this super event will now be held in Chennai.”
Some of the key highlights of the festival include – an international adult and children’s choir held at the SMVR Concert Hall on March 7th, Exhibition of works by 20 Aurovilian artists at Lalit Kala Akademi on March 8th, Seminar and Panel discussion about a “Sustainable Future”” at Kasturi Hall, Music Academy on March 11th and a series of lectures about “Auroville: a multicultural society for the development of human unity” at Lalit Kala Akademi on March 16th.
Another member of the Festival Committee, Ms. Vinodhini Joshi points out, “Art is an integral part of Auroville life. In fact, Auroville was conceived as a place where the arts will be both a means and an expression of human progress. As Sri Aurobindo pointed out, art is an important aspect of human life that acts on different spheres, from the purely aesthetic to the intellectual and educative, and finally the spiritual dimension. The Mother rightly said, ‘Auroville will be known through the arts…’ Therefore a number of events during the Festival is dedicated to the arts and crafts of Auroville.”
To kick-start the festival, there will be an Inauguration held at the ITC Grand Chola on March 1st between 4-6 p.m.
Reach us on -
Facebook: Auroville festival in Chennai
Festival website: festival.auroville.org
Auroville website: http://www.auroville.org
Email: chennaifestival@auroville.org.in
Phone: Elaine - 9952463904, Fabienne - 9443602194
About Auroville
Auroville, which has been intended in the Charter by the Mother as the bridge between the past and the future, has grown over the decades into a fully-fledged city in Arcadian surroundings. It is a universal and experimental township located in Tamil Nadu. It was conceived as a place where all life is yoga, all activities will be both a mean and an expression of human progress. Auroville was inaugurated on 28 February, 1968, when young people representing 124 countries and all the Indian states placed a handful of earth from their home lands in a marble-coated urn at the center of Auroville. Over 100 settlements of varying size form Auroville today with inhabitants engaged in activities like afforestation, organic agriculture, educational research, holistic health care, small and medium-scale business, arts and craft and renewable energy.
Photo Caption :
Members of the Auroville Festival Committee (L to R - Elaine Philips, Divya Kapoor, Fabienne Marechal, Krishna Devanandan & Vinodhini Joshi)
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