Hundreds of visitors at platform number eight of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus — the erstwhile Bori Bunder railway station — will be invited to participate in creating artworks for one of the city’s largest public art initiative, ‘ Art [en]counters ’, which will kick off with ‘Bori Bunder @ Platform 8’ this weekend.
The event has been organised by ArtO2 (Art Oxygen), a public art initiative that supports new and existing talent in India. “The project celebrates the multitude skills that the city harnesses,” says Leandre D’Souza, co-founder and curator of ArtO2.
The project is also a collaboration with Art Together Ltd (Hong Kong), Institute of Contemporary Indian Art — The Arts Trust (India), and TAG Contemporary (Italy), bringing several international artists to the city. In its seventh edition, Art [en]counters will feature 11 artists, including Peggy Chan, Owais Husain, Andrea Coretto, Pradeep Mishra and Emilio Leofreddi.
This weekend, at the South Mumbai railway station, home-grown artists Teja Gavankar will give people a sheet of paper, urging them to create different shapes by folding and curving the edges. She will then make videos of the different forms and later create sculptures inspired by these. Over the last week, Gavankar has been going around other train stations in the city to engage people in the same exercise. “The response from people has been awesome,” says the artist. “I was expecting to get a certain number of forms, but the different kinds I received were beyond my imagination. I learnt and experienced first hand that Mumbai is truly a city [with a] multitude of skills and talents.”
The aim of the annual initiative is to engage people with art. “And to understand and celebrate different knowledge capacities through interaction, which could influence and stimulate artworks,” says D’Souza. Using another medium to start a conversation about train stations with commuters is Hong Kong-based artist Wong Chun Hoi. He started working on his project on October 2, where he spoke with commuters. Hoi’s inquiries were simple: what they were doing there, and whether they like the train station, among others.
The answers: some visit the bathroom, others sleep there, and many use the free WiFi. All these replies have been recorded and will be presented as a two-hour long broadcast on Saturday.
“Almost 80 per cent of the respondents told me that they don’t like the stinky smell and the huge crowds at the station,” says Wong. That made the artist realise how the space is not just a beautiful colonial-architecture building, but extends itself to the other unpleasant aspects of public travel. In fact, almost all want to see a change in the form of an air conditioner. “It’s interesting how people look at themselves in the space as well,” adds Wong.
Hong Kong-based artist Chun Yiu Wai takes public participation and engagement to another level by asking people to invest money in creating an artwork. He will place an ‘art vending machine’ on the platform, essentially a computer on a wooden frame, which will be activated every time a commuter puts in any amount of money. The computer will begin to draw some part of the planned art work every time it receives money.
This exercise would continue until the entire work is created. “He wants people to invest money in the work and artist’s survival,” says D’Souza.
The project is a comment on the art market, questioning how monetary value is attached to art and the role and responsibility of an artist. Moreover, it talks about the importance of investing artists and their process. “What is most interesting is that the work will make investors out of the commuters, most of whom would have perhaps never entered an art gallery,” says the curator.
After spending two days creating them, the completed artworks will then be displayed at Sir JJ School of Arts and ICIA gallery till the end of November.
The author is a freelance writer
For the exact schedule and details, log onto artoxygen.org
