In December 2019, UDC was part of the curatorial team for Sargaalaya’s annual arts & crafts festival – A festival held in the beautiful campus of Sargaalaya, showcasing traditional artisanal work of Kerala. The theme selected for 2019, Curating clay – gave us the opportunity to explore clay through its history, science and applications. 

The exhibits curated by UDC for the festival was set as an induction to the theme. On entering the installation space, visitors were first taken through the history and evolution of clay followed by a showcase of its properties. Visitors explored different techniques used for building with clay – and the inherent properties of it that allowed the use of such techniques. 

Small pockets containing workshop spaces were created for visitors to get hands on with clay and experiment. A co-creative installation was set overlooking the central lake to give visitors the opportunity to lend their creativity to the festival. The experience was drawn to a close with a large display of different clay artifacts made by the artisans of Sargaalaya.

Project team: Vidhya Mohankumar, Dinesh Jeyachandran, Srivardhan Rajalingam, Nawin Saravanan, Vidhya Venkatesan
Partner Organisation: ULCCS