Social Art in the Public Realm

Two spaces within the same locality stand explored
Populations, communities, communication in “un-totality”
Nagara means township, community

Two interventions- very different in flavour
Bringing in moments to talk, communicate touch share

Did you make connects, did you share?

Part 1

Liz used her map at Russell market the other day (Monday 19th Jan 2009).
Located in Shivajinagar, looking straight out of a Indian pre-independence film set and smelling of all things from heavenly flowers to fruit to not so heavenly fresh meat, its quite a sight-o-sonic for even some “used to” types like me.

I walked in with an apprehensive Ekta. Ekta has a severe critical eye for any community based exercise. She will not gulp it down if it smells of yet another elitist take on art and community and I knew her critical glasses were high-on-up-the-nose.

No one in sight at the entrance, no curious crowd in sight, no crazy artist group, no map…

As we walked straight in and when the brighter outsides & darker insides worked to balance my vision and the surrounding space out, I saw straight ahead, by the end of the corridor, some light, some people and the map.
A few people were standing around, curious. One or two stitched up designs on the map. The rows of shops I had walked through didn’t seem much affected by the group’s intervening. The space was calm but the spaces were separate. The new group was welcome, it co-existed, but it didn’t matter much to those inside. I wondered what they were thinking this was about. But they didn’t give me the “curious energy” either.

As we went closer, I tried to strike up a conversation with a few curious-energy-but-scared-to-ask types. “Hindi, Kannada, Tamil (tamil and hindi were big here) ?” “What’s happening here?” “What do you think is going on?”

They say, “Don’t know” Smile
Me: “This is a map, do you know what a map means?”
They: Smile.. “No”

Me: “Well, if you were on a plane or helicopter, or you simply were able to fly high, where would you be and what would you see? Where would Russell Market be? Where would your home be? Where would Shivajinagar be? How would it look?”

“What if I said that what one would see (if one could see all of Bangalore from the top there) is shown here, on this cloth?” (used “this could be ulsoor lake” often…people immediately understood what the white sheet on the table was)

Some: oh!
Some others: “Aah yes, Map, map. Now I know”

Me: “So what you can do is, perhaps find your home…where is home?
“Coles Park, ShivajiNagar, ummm…”

“So find your area and you can then mark it, and then stitch a symbol for home- some symbol that will make you feel this is your home…”

…this communication then being handed over to the student artists

Community art, community exercises, togetherness. To foster togetherness

In South Asia, we have many community rituals. Many of these have turned mundane. They don’t spark off interactions that are fresh, out-of-context of running into “the other” type.
Simple, non-provocative, and yet, leading to ripples of interactions and levels. Neutral cross community exercises like this one worked differently.

Some questions need answering again and again and need to fully “come in” to awareness…
These flicker with an answer and then disappear…so we need to stitch them together on our mental maps

1. Was it the art intervention exercise by itself that worked? What sort of an intervention was it?
My answer: The map exercise is certainly a great tool. But what about the component of communicating and dialoging with community? Language, trust and participation eliciting seem to go hand in hand. Such an exercise in south Asia (particularly India) should bring about an opportunity to articulate.

2. Why is articulation important? What are the forms of articulation?
My Answer: Articulation is important because when you are trying to articulate a certain exercise (in this context, verbally) , and try to make connects and fill gaps, you are truly filling gaps for yourself and for a collective. And this sharing brings and resolves external tensions and internal conflicts, while the art intervention has been an “excuse” to be able to talk outside of our minds, outside of our usual social circles.
Forms of articulation: In this case, there were the map navigators (once they knew what it was about), there were the “map stitchers or mappers” who quietly stitched away, then there were the folk on the periphery, happy to be there and use the context and idea of Bangalore and mapping the city to talk about the community. I spoke to a group of store owners, four muslim men and one hindu man who were the 3rd or 4th generation store owners. They spoke of the Bengaluru’s religious communities and their uniqueness. They claimed that their area was the most “secular”. Shivajinagar saw temples and mosques and churches stand together, with people of either faith using each space of worship and festive occasion as their own. They even had blurred boundaries of religious practices and spaces…Russell market playing “guest house” during church feasts- how they shut business down to be able to host Christian visitors and devotees during St Mary’s feast.

Part 2 shortly…

Deepak
deepak@maraa.in

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