The IIC Experience, the India International Centre’s annual arts festival, is by the cognoscenti, for the cognoscenti. The autumn fest this year has rivers as its theme —from the Brahmaputra to the Danube to the Amazon. “We celebrate the life-giving properties of rivers and the civilisations they have nurtured from a variety of perspectives — 17 exhibitions, music, dances by an Egyptian folk group and a Spanish troupe,” says Dr Kavita Sharma, director, IIC. “We also think about the threats to rivers and how one river is overflowing and another dying.”

The week-long festival started on October 7with Bhuvanesh Komkali, grandson of Kumar Gandharva, rendering an invocation to rivers. The fest will host works by artists like Arpana Caur, films like Ritwik Ghatak’s Titas Ekti Nadir Naam, a poetry-cum-dance presentation by Saeed Naqvi and Birju Maharaj and photographs curated by Kapila Vatsyayan. Delhi troupe Sunny Side Up will present jazz from New Orleans . Sumant Barooah is showing photographs of the Yangtse in China and the people of the Majuli Islands of Assam.

Food forms an important part of the celebrations, and the chef will rustle up cuisine from the Nile and Cajun dishes from the Mississippi among others.

The festival is on till October 14.

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