not all darkness is evil and not all light means happiness imagine that spotlight that is exposing a tiny refugee boat struggling to reach the shores of europe or an electric flycatcher killing insects with its brightness that is why we have chosen light and darkness as the theme of this years festival said artist sanatan dinda from the venue of behala art fest 2022 which begins tomorrow with this theme the festival organisers are trying to portray modern time its politics and culture at one of the few curated street art shows in the world making art available to massesabout three years ago when the art fest began under the patronage of a group of youngsters belonging to behala nutan sangha and dinda the prime objective was to create an art space for the artists and an open gallery for the common people more often than not the work by renowned artists displayed in galleries cannot reach the masses but during durga puja people come in flocks to enjoy art that is why we have created such a space without any entry fee said abhishek bhattacharjee one of organising committee members to stay true to the idea of having a platform purely for art artists will not be allowed to commercialise their artwork at the venuedinda has stayed away from the gallery art space for almost a decade explaining why he said it is because i have been looking for a secular democratic and alternative space without any commercialisation and censorship to talk about subaltern culture and politics so with the shared vision of making art available to the masses the club and the artists have been transforming the behala para into an open art gallery since 2020artists prepped for monthsmore than 28 artists from the city have been working day and night to make this vision a reality but before they started working the artists prepared for months and attended workshops after six online and physical workshops they were asked to submit their ideas that is where these pieces were chosen after holding several brainstorming sessions and floating sharp ideas these wall art and installation designs were finalised said sanatanthe pandemic made the entire process even more challenging while the convenors and senior artists wanted to organise more classes and workshops it could not be made possible the entire show had to be postponed due to the third wave but thankfully we are still able to pull it off this year said abhisheka fest of the people for the peoplesince the festival is for the masses the locals are an important part of it from the local tea shops to rickshaw pullers auto drivers and an entire para of some 70odd families everyone participates instead of removing the tea stalls and rickshaw stands from the venue weve come up with ideas on how to include them said artist panchali banerjee dindas daughter parijat who is participating in the festival for the first time has recreated