Pune Biennale 2017: "Inclusive" Art!

At a time when the issue of movement of people in search of living opportunities, of migrants and their identity, surfaces more frequently and ubiquitously in this world than at any other time in history owing to the growing epidemic of turf wars, power struggles, political re-alignments and natural calamities, can art remain untouched by it? But, the manner in which they have chosen to represent this, marrying it with other currently topical concepts like sustainability, reduction and re-use, flexibility and inclusion in a refreshingly novel move at the Pune Biennale is the real news-maker. Upholding a promise made to the Pune Municipal Corporation to demonstrate how the tons of scrap metal in its yards could be made over into art works for the city, the Biennale foundation conceptualised a show of art installations created from this scrap by professional artists to be put up this year. The art works will be juxtaposed with 5 – 6 shipping containers, painted as artworks themselves, inside of which will be displayed paintings, photographs and films based on the theme of ‘human migration’, leaning on the allusion to containers representing movement and having themselves been, on occasions, the carriers of migrating humans around the world.

Titled ‘Moving Art/ Spaces’ and curated by Bina Sarkar Elias, this ensemble can be viewed and enjoyed on the Shri Shivaji Preparatory Military School at Shivaji Nagar, Pune during the Biennale. On display will be photographs by Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Nepalese, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Turkish and American photographers chronicling narratives of migrants encountered by them, installations depicting the loss and despair of refugees and trafficked girls, films by Yasmin Kabir and Rafiq Elias depicting the varying pangs associated with migration as well as poems on the theme by eloquent contemporary poets. 

While the exterior of these containers will be decorated to become part of the installations on display, the interiors will be retained in their raw form, except for a coat of paint and sliders to hold up the displays, with the aim of letting visitors experience first-hand the atmospherics of such furtive movements. Extending the theme temporally, the foundation has a legacy for the use of these display containers by moving them wherever they are sought or required; a school may have them on its grounds to be used for their children’s artistic expressions or another exhibition of artworks could be arranged within the containers at a different venue; thus, seeking closure to the endeavour of exploring the association between art, spaces and movement.

There is an artist in each of us and the Pune Biennale has been founded on this belief. That they truly mean each and every one of the citizens has been exhibited by the Inclusive Art event organised as part of the Biennale this year. Inclusive Art – a platform for the specially abled citizens of Pune to participate, contribute and share in this cultural extravaganza has been conceptualised in two parts, a Children’s Art Workshop and an Art Camp for professional artists from various places.

The workshop for differently abled children involving several art forms like sketching, painting, puppet making, clay modelling and others was organised jointly with the national award winning Bal Kalyan Sanstha who contributed with their own premises in Pune as the venue on 16^th December, Friday. Conducted with the expertise of professional artists and art teachers, the workshop provided an opportunity for the talent within differently abled children to express itself through a range of media and materials, and also a chance to learn from the best in the field. Little hands expressed their innermost desires, dreams, opinions and angst through different materials like pencils, paints, clay and paper, while learning to work nimbly with them, making it an exercise of wonderful sharing and learning within the community.

The second chapter of this Inclusive Art endeavour involves differently abled professional artists from Pune and other parts of India creating artworks based on the Biennale theme of ‘Identity and Self’ at an interactive camp over  5 – 7 days. The plan extends to a display of selected works at an exhibition as well as the publication of outstanding works in a curated Coffee Table Book. All in all, the Pune Biennale Foundation has put in every effort to reach out and pull into their embrace, the participation of every segment of citizens 

So, as the city of Pune with its streets, gardens and under-passes get set to be converted by its citizens into a panoramic canvas of their artistic expressions, why not pack up and head to Pune to join the colourful carnival? For, perhaps, when we take to our cities’ streets to make them our own is when we begin to take a more operable approach to attaining the goal of an equitable society, a smart city and also a Swachchh Bharat…..