Social Art in the Public Realm

There were 10 days in Bangalore working on a visual project about fear and gender in public spaces. First time in India. How to do that?
All the cultural exchanges and communication gaps … everything is part of my experience and I am part of my project.
The project was urgent and I was decided to propose it very open.
Do not teach, no orders, no impositions on others and feel the culture by letting it come and go.
It was very difficult to survive to that task.
It swallowed me.
The project itself talks about freedom.
And, as a photography project, we should respect TIME.
Freedom to be ready to share your thoughts, to say what you need to say.
It’s not possible to impose freedom but I could give free space !
27 virgin negative frames for each participant and a wall to expose the pictures at the end of the project.

The time we have need is the time we have, and we should use it with very few meetings and a long time alone taking pictures.

I chose disposable cameras for participants concentrate on what they see and what they want to show, and don’t get confused with technologies of digital cameras.

The camera was the instrument that aloud the participant to face their feelings and go trough, if you feel like it.

An invitation to revisit your experience and share it with others.

My rules about the project would be defined at the time they appear.
So that I didn’t work tight in old structures.

The first position, to reach the issue of being a Indian woman in public spaces passing trough my themes, fear and safety … me, as Brazilian, couldn’t do by myself.
The only possibility of pass trough that experience it was by seeing through Indian women’s eyes.
I had 15 cameras :
- 7 art students from Shristi School
- Ekta and Pallavi from Maara Media Collective for who I gave extra cameras for that they invite local people to participate
- Mara, the cleaner of the apartment were I was.
- The security man of building I was living in.

When I opened for more people than the art students, I was expanding the group and inviting different classes and casts to work together, investigate their own culture and bring new perspectives of living in India.

The second position, for them feel free to express themselves trough the project (what was very important for the project to be successful) I decided not to give credit for each pictures.
The participants would have their names as collaborators.
It was a collective work.

If the participant wants to credit their picture, they are free to do it writing comments in the website.

The third position, the exposition should be this very collective wall of pictures. No names, no conclusions, not much information about the people.

The fourth position was about the edition of the pictures.
The idea was to show many pictures as possible, the limitations of the budget and the free space on the wall.
As it was a project that express people feelings trough the images, I couldn’t make an edition based on my hopes. I decided to catch images that:
-    Could communicate with me, enjoying it or not, following the idea that once I could dialogue with it, it could reach the public too.
-    Could offer a new point of view about the theme (even if most of them took pictures inside the rickshaw, I selected few of them, not all)

The fifth position was about to create an exposition that could represent the project meaning.

To be opened to meet the other.
My participation was to open the participants to investigate their feelings and explore it trough the disposabe cameras. It was also to guarantee the openness of the exposition.

I should bring questions for the exposition wall, not answers.
The pictures should show people’s questions about fear and safety and how photography can be a way for them to dialogue about it.
And, at least, the public of the gallery should be opened to the work, to watch the pictures as a way to dialogue with the participants, opening a conversation with the other but also revisiting their own
feelings and memories.

To see a 6×4’ piece of photo paper as invitation for a dialogue.
To make themselves questions about what the other wants to say … “what was she / he feeling when did it?” and “what do I feel when I see it” is a way to put yourself in the place of the other.

soon we have more about the project home_street_home at : indialand.wordpress.com

Intervention at Shivaji Nagar Bus Stop