Kolkata, Jan 23 (IANS): Performers from Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines, Japan and various parts of India will come together to foster interactions spanning art, politics and culture at the Kolkata International Performance Art Festival (KIPAF) that began here Thursday.

Organised by Performers independent (Pi), an independent artists' collective, the four-day event will provide a forum for artists to express themselves through "diverse traditions of performance and interventions."

According to the release by the organisers, "Figuratively, the city of Kolkata today stands between an aspiration for neo liberal future to be a global city, and an imagination which revolts against the idea, along with anxiety about the widespread violence that would ensue."

"Available political discourses represent this moment of flux to make a case in favour of or against development. KIPAF see this 'tussle' as living proof of the politically conscious, represented in their mundane expressions of resistance as the city seeks to live up to another surge of global modernism."

The performances will be held in various public spaces across the city and in select auditoriums.

KIPAF was initiated in 2013 and is held Jan 23 to 26 every year.