From Inherited Identities To New Selves, ‘Metamorphosis’ Reimagines Freedom At IFBE

The fifth edition of IFBE’s annual interdisciplinary arts festival brings together artists from movement, theatre, literature, music, comedy, and illusion to examine the meaning of freedom in evolving, shedding, questioning, and becoming.

'Metamorphosis', brings together 17 artists across movement, theatre, literature, music, comedy, and illusion to explore freedom, identity, and the possibility of change.IFBE

Published on:

12 Aug 2026, 11:00 am

4 min read

Summary

The Independence Project returns to IFBE in Ballard Estate, Mumbai, for its fifth edition, 'Metamorphosis', bringing together 17 artists across movement, theatre, literature, music, comedy, and illusion to explore freedom, identity, and the possibility of change.

What happens in the space between who we have been and who we might become?

Independence is not a fixed state. It is something we negotiate daily — with ourselves, others, and the selves we are in the process of evolving into. Now in its fifth year, The Independence Project, Mumbai-based multicultural space IFBE’s annual interdisciplinary arts festival, focuses on ‘Metamorphosis’, highlighting the ongoing, sometimes unsettling, yet exciting journey of becoming. Sarita Vijayan, Programming Director of IFBE, says, “Freedom gives us the ability to determine our own lives, but it also gives us the possibility of changing them.”

Housed in a refurbished legacy ice factory in Mumbai’s Fort district, IFBE is a cultural space where architecture, design and the arts converge, bringing unlikely ideas, disciplines and people into conversation to challenge conventions, disrupt assumptions and reimagine the world.IFBE

“We wanted this edition of The Independence Project to look at that quieter dimension of freedom: the ability to question what we have inherited, to move beyond what has been defined for us and to keep becoming. The artists in ‘Metamorphosis’ approach this through very different forms, but each creates a space for us to reconsider what we think is fixed.”

Sarita Vijayan, Programming Director, IFBE

According to Vijayan, the idea behind ‘Metamorphosis’ draws on the relationship between independence and the potential for transformation. Transformation compels us to question established identities, reject certainty, and acknowledge that change rarely follows a linear path. Yet within this uncertainty lies the essence of freedom — the capacity to reconfigure, reimagine, and begin anew. Through movement, theatre, storytelling, literature, music, comedy, illusion, and participation, this edition of The Independence Project examines transformation as a continual act of creation rather than a singular point of arrival.

On Saturday, 15 August, the two-day programme opens with Shweta Warrier’s ‘Unbecoming’ featuring her unique Street O’Classical practice.IFBE

The two-day programme starts with meditations focused on the body. On Saturday, 15 August, Shweta Warrier’s ‘Unbecoming’ features her unique Street O’Classical practice, rooted in Bharatanatyam combined with contemporary and street dances to explore how inherited forms and identities can evolve while maintaining their connection to origins. After her session, Abhinav Vaidya leads ‘From Self to Story’, a screenwriting workshop that transforms personal experiences, contradictions, and vulnerabilities into narrative material, followed by ‘Busy Becoming’ — a conversation between bilingual, multi-genre authors Shinjini Kumar and Anukrti Upadhyay about living across multiple languages and literary modes, and how this shapes identity. Day 1 concludes with ‘Between the Lines’, a silent reading circle and community gathering by Next Chapter Mumbai; Jashn-e-Qalam’s dramatic reading of K.A. Abbas’ Partition classic ‘Sardaar Ji’; Shruthi Veena Vishwanath’s exploration of freedom through South Asian bhakti and Sufi poets; and Denzil Smith along with Danish Husain’s ‘Poetrification’.

Set in the aftermath of Partition, Jashn-e-Qalam’s dramatic reading of K.A. Abbas’ Partition classic ‘Sardaar Ji’ explores how fear, prejudice and suspicion can turn ordinary people against one another.IFBE

The second day focuses on writing, reflection, and shared experiences. Bombay Book Club’s ‘The Full Circle’ brings together women and queer readers, while Yuki Ellias’s ‘Writing With Movement’ explores writing through physical sensation and impulse. Sangeeta Pandhi’s ‘Echoes of Freedom’ utilizes sound, vibration, and breath as ways to access stillness and renewal. Meanwhile, Chaitanya Tamhane’s participatory mentalism piece, ‘While I Still Can’, turns human connection, fear, and existential absurdity into a personal, immersive experience.

The festival concludes with ‘Blue Material’, an all-Dalit stand-up comedy show featuring the Dalit-led, queer-affirmative collective with guest comedian Abish Matthew. Using humour and satire to confront caste and intersecting oppressions, the performance also highlights joy as a form of resistance.

The festival concludes with ‘Blue Material’, an all-Dalit stand-up comedy show featuring the Dalit-led, queer-affirmative collective with guest comedian Abish Matthew.IFBE

‘Metamorphosis’ does not present transformation as a destination, but as an ongoing process — sometimes deliberate, sometimes unexpected, as personal as it is collective. It asks us to consider freedom not only as the ability to choose who we are, but as the freedom to change our minds, shed old selves, and become someone else. Across two days of performance, movement, literature, music, comedy and conversation, The Independence Project creates space for those possibilities: to encounter unfamiliar perspectives, question what we take to be fixed, and remain open to whatever might emerge next.