Para Artscapes
Para is a bengali word for neighbourhood and community. After working in Chitpur for 4 years and testing and exploring collaborative practices with diverse communities, Para Artscapes was an attempt to build collaborations between artists, civil society organizations and communities in other neighbourhoods in Kolkata. These projects took shape over four months, with each collaborator stepping out of their comfort zone to make art together. The artists had the unusual challenge of working in unfamiliar spaces outside their studios, and had to find ways to make art interesting and accessible to children and residents with no formal training. They also had to transform their own visual art practices to create new collaborative processes for sharing narratives that mattered to the these communities. The community members suddenly found their everyday schedules were altered as they spent more and more time immersed in paints and plaster, while local organizations worked tirelessly to build networks that could help secure the right permissions and raise funds.
For a week in January 2019, the projects were brought to life, temporally transforming these peripheral corners of Kolkata into a hub of activity.The artworks created a fantastical landscape that visibilized the stories of the participants, marked these marginal spaces in the larger imagination of the city as well as brought people together from across the city to create a shared experience.
These projects were facilitated by Hamdasti, KultX and Art Rickshaw as a part of The Kolkata Festival and CIMA Awards Show.
For a week in January 2019, the projects were brought to life, temporally transforming these peripheral corners of Kolkata into a hub of activity.The artworks created a fantastical landscape that visibilized the stories of the participants, marked these marginal spaces in the larger imagination of the city as well as brought people together from across the city to create a shared experience.
These projects were facilitated by Hamdasti, KultX and Art Rickshaw as a part of The Kolkata Festival and CIMA Awards Show.
Para Artscapes 1- Chalo Painting TangaiThe old Port Trust Colony, off Taratala Road, was a blank canvas with many surprising stories waiting to be brought to life. The young people who have grown up in the fringes of the abandoned buildings and playgrounds filled these empty spaces with their own imagination and adventures. The artists' collective Sunny De Wall, in association with local organisation Jungle Crows, worked with the youth to create a fantastical landscape using graffiti, murals, prints and sculptures to re-imagine this locality and portray their lives with humour, tinged with shades both dark and light.
NGO partner - Jungle Crows Foundation Artists- Sunny De Wall Collective Residents/Artists- Khelo Rugby Team |
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Para Artscapes 2- Across the Lines
Hidden away from the main streets and across the railway lines, the residents of Kolkata's Pavlov Mental Hospital collaborated with artist Srikanta Paul assisted by Ruma Choudhury and Tanmay Chakraborty to create an immersive artwork that expresses their dreams and aspirations. The hospital, a site under construction at the time, is a home of sorts to people overcoming mental health issues, as well as people who are left without a home even after recovery. The experience of living within its guarded walls leads to conflicting and often unresolved ideas about self, identity, home and community. This project was an attempt to give shape to these ideas, and briefly occupy the space with the voices of those living in the hospital.
NGO partner - Anjali Artists- Srikanta Paul, Ruma Choudhury and Tanmay Chakraborty
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Post Project Dialogues
These two projects will culminate in a week-long exhibition at the Goethe Institut 'Art of, by and for All' that explores the rippling affects of coming together and infusing our shared spaces with art. It makes a case for collaborative art-making in communities, while unpacking the challenges, and explores how artists, communities, government institutions and local organizations can start to make ‘art for all’. What happens when residents, local organizations, artists and ordinary citizens come together to transform their everyday environments into art spaces? Could you imagine an art space in a little known mental hospital or through the back alleys of an abandoned colony?
Art for (of/by) All is opening on July 26, 2019 at the Goethe Institut Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata
Art for (of/by) All is opening on July 26, 2019 at the Goethe Institut Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata
Press
How an art exhibition at a Kolkata hospital became an interface between two worlds (The Hindu)
At Kolkata's Pavlov Mental Health Hospital, art offers a unique perspective into the experiences of patients (First Post)
At Kolkata's Pavlov Mental Health Hospital, art offers a unique perspective into the experiences of patients (First Post)
Donors
The projects were funded by individual donations from Laily Thompson (KultX), Gautam Mridha , Saurabh Dutta Chowdhury, Tom Roy, Sanjay Raj Aggarwal, Sanjay Issar, Ed Thompson, Aleya and Asia Thompson, Gargi Bhattacharya, Sanchari Roy Mukherjee, Mamata Deb, Smita Pachisia, Jogindar Raj Aggarwal, Sabina Aggarwal, Shoma Basu and others.
Anjali was a contributor as were the artists, and curators who volunteered their time.
The projects were partly funded by the Department of Tourism Government of West Bengal.
Anjali was a contributor as were the artists, and curators who volunteered their time.
The projects were partly funded by the Department of Tourism Government of West Bengal.
