Who doesn’t like a clearer and greener city And with the Swachh Bharat campaign working in full swing, many artists and organisations have come together with public art projects as a medium to improve and maintain public spaces.
In its fourth edition, the “St+Art Festival” aims to make Lodhi Colony the first art district of the country. Built on the foundation of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the initiative focuses on creatively spreading the message of maintaining a cleaner physical environment. “Art has the potential to create a positive impact on a city and its residents, while also paving the way towards making people more conscious about their environment. Through the creation of India’s first public art district, we hope to work with the government on more projects to create a sustainable approach towards the Swachh Bharat Mission,” says, Arjun Bahl, co-founder and festival director, St+Art India.
The centrally located and pedestrian-friendly area is an ideal place for the public art gallery, states Hanif Kureshi, co-founder and artistic director, St+Art India. “The perfectly aligned walls of Lodhi Colony serve as a perfect canvas for each participating artist. With each mural located within walking distance, Lodhi Art District will be the first public space of its kind in the country. Hopefully after completion this will fuel the growth of street art in India and will also open up the idea of choosing public art as a career for the younger generation,” he adds.
Talking about the impact of public art projects across the world, Divya Jain, Founder and CEO, Safeducate who has conceptualised the “Safexpress Container Project” at Select CityWalk, Saket says, “Public art projects across the world have proved that areas with public art can be a source of community pride and therefore are more likely to be maintained and kept clean by the local community. Also, an art piece acts as a tool in re-enforcing the message in a stronger way.”
Elaborating on the project itself, she says, “The idea was to create an interactive work that spreads the message of going green. The container itself is a unique green innovation — we are refurbishing old containers to become mobile schools and in this case, a mobile art piece spreading the message of conservation and saving our environment.”
Public art can be community building, states Pooja Sood, Director of Khoj International Artists’ Association, a radical arts space known for fostering experimentation that has been working on various public art projects since 2004. “Art has been restricted to the elite for far too long and street art projects create an opportunity for a larger number of people to not only experience art, but also have conversations around it — leading to ideas of reimagining public spaces and the effects art can have on building community pride.”
She continues, “We have been working on various public art projects for over a decade. Our initiative “48 C Public. Art. Ecology” in 2008 was a public experiment and intervention situated around Delhi focusing on the theme of ecology, and interrogated the complex environment of Delhi. The aim is to open the doors for public art viewing and create a medium for engagement. Most of the works created are in reference to the demand of the public or on topics that are of importance like global warming and pollution. These also focus on the frenzied paradoxes of a city that seems to be in perpetual, strident overdrive, yet is also mutely, violently, running on empty.”
To gauge the interest of urban dwellers about unknown or lesser-known spaces in the city, St+Art India is also working on a second project called “WIP (Work in Progress): The Street Art Show” in collaboration with the Container Corporation of India. The aim is to convert the largest dry port in Asia — Inland Container Depot in Tughlakabad, New Delhi — into a vibrant work of art. 25 artists will work for two months on 100 shipping spaces converting them into a walk-through space for installations.
