Shabana Azmi, Pinaki Misra, Rohit Roy, Sashanka Mohapatra, Lalita Lajmi, Rajendra Patil, Brinda Miller & many others at the Mumbai Declaration of the Odisha Triennial of International Art

The OTIA Mumbai Declaration at NGMA, Mumbai was graced by MP Pinaki Mishra, five times National Award-winning eminent actress and MP Shabana Azmi, actors Rohit Roy and Kavitta Verma, designer Nikita Mohanty, veteran artists Lalita Lajmi, Prabhakar Kolte, Nayanaa Kanodia, Sashanka Mohapatra, artists Brinda Miller, Padmanabh Bendre, Suhas Bahulkar, Dadiba Pundole, Gautam Patole, Sanjukta Barik, Akhilesh Jaiswal, Maushmi Ganguly, Shabari Smita Guha Nath, Mallikarjun Katke, Kuldeep Karegaonkar, Vipta Kapadia, Vishwa Sahni, Sonu Gupta among others. India’s topmost curator and art historian, JohnyML, OTIA’s Curatorial Director, Mumbai based artist and Educationist, Rajendra Patil ‘PaRa’ as Mentor-Director of OTIA and Kshitish Das Program Coordinator were also present.

OTIA will be a 40 day-long mega art event with over 100 Indian artists of the likes of Jatin Das, Sudhir Patwardhan, Prabhakar Kolte, K.S.Radhakrishnan, Ravinder Reddy, Jogen Chowdhury, Laxman Gowd among others.

MP Pinaki Mishra said, “OTIA is a noble venture. It flew out of an idea of very bright and talented youngsters from Raghurajpur that has extraordinary talent per square inch. Every home is home to art and artisans. I would like to invite you back this winter and spend a couple of days to understand how much talent is prevalent and nurtured and is left undiscovered. That is the real motive of OTIA and the Triennial, and anything we can do to make it a success.  It is a challenging and daunting task but young people bring strong energies and exceptionally gifted mentors. Well begun is half done and I am privileged to part of it.”

Added  Shabana Azmi, “My father had inculcated art in me since I was a child. I have been watching plays, going to galleries, since my childhood. It has created a climate of sensitivity sublimely in me. In today’s times, where the entire world is driven by the market, we have to make a special attempt to say that we nurture art that doesn’t apply to market but says something much more important.