Between Two Worlds

The noise of the city or the poetry in the forest—the second edition of the IN THE WOODS festival throws up some interesting existential questions.

- Sushmita Srivastav

Imagine being in a pitch-dark space with nothing but three distinctly composed tracks played loud at once, depicting the cacophony of city life. Or standing in another black zone where all you can see are illustrative images of the ever-changing distressing urban life played on loop on two different screens. And later, coming out to find yourself in the midst of a quiet forest where everything else is hushed except the trees that whisper poetry to you.

As dream-like as it may sound,while travelling to the Kangra valley last month, I saw all this (and more) for real. Held for a week in the month of November in a certain forest area a little ahead of Gunehar village in Himachal Pradesh, was the second edition of IN THE WOODS—an open-air contemporary art festival curated to bring virtual representation of art alive amidst nature.