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Chitpur Revisted: Part 1

2/24/2014

Chitpur Revisited: Community and Space on Chitpur Road is the first in a series of forums at galleries and cultural institutions across Kolkata. We hope you can join us!

Through these forums we aim to create a broader discussion on social art practices, gain critical perspectives on our projects and build a network of interested project participants across the city.
More importantly we hope to activate a dialogue about Chitpur and it's relevance to the city today.

Mapping Chitpur

2/20/2014

Last Saturday, the Hamdasti team and artists spent an exciting morning mapping Chitpur Road with the guidance of architect Sharan Lal. Our mapping expedition led us through the narrow lanes, bylanes and courtyards of Chitpur. It also helped us understand that any community driven project about Chitpur's heritage is first and foremost about exploring people's relationship to the myriad spaces on this road.

Mapping shops, distances, facades, and lanes was the first step towards identifying spaces that can be activated as social, cultural and even educational spaces through the site-specific projects being developed through the workshops. We forgot to take pictures of us mapping in all our excitement but here is a stitched up panorama that reveals just how layered and complicated this road really is!

Community Feedback Session

2/8/2014

On Friday we had the first in a series of community feedback meetings, as we seek input from the residents and workers of Chitpur Road on the design and implementation of our workshops.

Members present at the meeting included teachers from the Oriental Seminary school, the owner of the Diamond Library, a local woodcut craftsman, and a saleswoman who works on Chitpur Road. The artist collaborators presented their different projects, and solicited feedback from the community.

It was an excellent experience to hold a community forum, and to hear about the diverse issues that are important to residents and people who work in the area. Community members had very good input, giving the artists new issues to think about as they continue to run the workshops and projects. One of the issues raised was the need to involve parents of the students. Also some impediments to participation in the project were identified, which included financial hardship, lack of time and a possible suspicion about our motives.

We also learnt about a few interesting spaces on Chitpur Road, like the abandoned type factory and historical book shops and libraries. We look forward to future collaborations with the many people engaged and passionate about heritage and local history in Chitpur Road.

January Workshop

2/2/2014

Our Chitpur Residency kicked off with three workshops that took places over the last few weeks at the Oriental Seminary on Chitpur Road. We began by having the students who participated in our November workshop fill out a short survey about the experience, and also distributed the books that they co-authored.

The workshops took place over the last week. The first, led by Avijna Bhattacharya, revolved around local stories and narratives from the community. The students learned about the different components of a short story, and went out into the community to interview different individuals. They also started a journal, where they will continue to collect more stories about people in their every day environment.

The second workshop was about theatre and performance, and was facilitated by Bengali veteran actor Joyraj Bhattacharya and his theatre colleagues. The facilitators helped the students engage in different theatre exercises, and they also performed a reading of a Bengali play- 'Lakshman-er Shaktisheel'. This play will become a vehicle for learning about the jatra theatre of Chitpur.

The third workshop was facilitated by printmakers Purnaa Deb and Nilanjan Das, along with the help of graphic designer Rajasee Ray. They led the students in a printmaking exercise over the week, in which the students each made letters using linoleum squares. The students also met with wood-cut carvers and printmakers on Chitpur Road.

Stay tuned for more details on upcoming workshops!

Chitpur Revisted: Part 1

Mapping Chitpur

Community Feedback Session

January Workshop

Hamdasti

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