The citizenship law over which protests have erupted across the country has cast a shadow on the Serendipity Arts Festival here with an exhibition featuring artworks related to the new-enacted legislation as well as the National Register of Citizens (NRC) "temporarily sealed" on Wednesday.
On being reopened a few hours later, three of the 27 artworks in the exhibition titled "Look Outside This House", curated by leading Indian artist Sudarshan Shetty as part of the visual arts segment of the festival were found to be either removed, non-functional, or shut.
While the Serendipity Arts Foundation that organises the annual multi-disciplinary festival cited "technical glitch" as the reason, Shetty said he felt "troubled and pained at the situation we have come to", and added that he stood by "each piece of work in the show".
One of the videos is that of 'Miyah poets' of Assam which talks of violence and discrimination and the alleged threat of statelessness due to the country's changing socio-political climate.
The second one invited viewers to write on wall-sized canvases with ink created out of carbon in the air and featured some anti-CAB/NRC scribbles three days into the festival.
The third video, which was supposed to showcase sensor fitted goggles for the blind, carried the caption, "Due to the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Northeast, we could not procure the goggles for the blind in time for this show."