Mumbai: Nature and art held Benoy K, Jaspal Singh Naol, Kishore Biswas and Allwyn Augustine, professionals from diverse fields, together. While Mr. Benoy and Mr. Augustine ran a café in Belapur, Mr. Naol was a former journalist, and Mr. Biswas, an artist. Two years ago, they were discussing, over tea, the concrete jungle that Navi Mumbai had become. “We felt the city we lived in needed to be changed. And we found our answer in art,” says Mr. Naol.
“We wanted to link art with social issues, and decided to have a platform, which we named ‘Apna Desi Katta’,” says Mr. Benoy. The idea was also to influence people to live in harmony with nature, and the group tried to include local enterprises in innovating. But the effort did not get a good reach, and the group came up with Green Society Forum (GSF), putting in Rs. 7 lakh from their savings. The team believes a lot of used resource material that is simply dumped in backyards, can create monuments with the message of transforming waste into art.
Ten projects
Till date, the team has executed 10 projects. The first was to do with e-waste. The team created the Mother India Board, a map of India using 22 non-functional laptop motherboards for the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation.
The rationale for this was sound. India is the world’s fifth largest producer of e-waste, and Maharashtra tops the national list with 20270.5 million tonne. Moreover, about 4.5 lakh labourers across the country in the age group of 10-14 are engaged in various e-waste recycling without safeguards. “E-waste contains over 1,000 toxic materials, which contaminate soil and groundwater. Exposure can cause a serious health issue,” says Mr. Naol, Social Initiative Director at GSF.
The second issue they took up was air pollution, especially through motor vehicles. With the intent to spread the message on using public transport, the group planned a Bus Day with Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT). GSF, under the banner of LifeSave Foundation, took the responsibility of designing and implementing the campaign. “An NMMT bus was painted by 10 artists, and GSF created bird wings on the bus and placed a music system inside was to attract people. It was renovated within 10 days,” says Mr. Augustine, Visual Director, GSF.
GSF reached out to around 1,500 NMMT staff, co-operative housing societies, companies, traders and religious institutions to get more commuters to use buses. It also organised more than 80 street plays all over Navi Mumbai.
The challenges
The team’s goals are clear: transform people’s behaviour towards a sustainable lifestyle. Their starting point for any project is their friends, local shopkeepers, hoteliers and raddiwalas. But these are where the bottlenecks lie. “It is a challenge to encourage a trash vendor to give us unwanted waste for free, as they feel we will monetise it. However, even when we don’t get anything, we are not disappointed as we have created awareness,” says Mr. Benoy, Concept Director at GSF.
Getting people to eshew plastic bags or water bottles in a city where they are an integral part of people’s lives is also a challenge. But the team believes that through art, transformation can happen, even if not in large numbers. “We hope continuous efforts from artists, activists and the authorities will one day ensure a plastic-free society,” says Mr. Biswas, Art Director at GSF.
Future plans
GSF wants to develop the world’s first global ‘retain art museum’ in Navi Mumbai, which will house monuments made from waste. They also plan a Universal Institute for Global Green Innovation, whichc will provide space for nature-based experiments from nearly 75 countries.
The concept has already found takers. Says Prashant Patil, President, Peasant and Workers Party, Ulwe node, “When the GSF team met me a year ago, they proposed a unique monument from waste — a ploughing bull, which symbolises the transformation of farm land into urban housing [the monument stands at Sector 19]. Art made of automobile and residential waste is not only attractive but also makes people think.”
GSF has also created a mural for the NGO Pratham, using waste material at their Skill Development Centre in Aurangabad: two drums,
and metal cords derived from discarded cable wires. Says Rajesh Thokle, Project Director, Pratham, “The best part is that the material for the mural was collected from the backyard.”
Art is a time-consuming activity, which needs patience and involves a cost overrun. While funding is hard to come by, they hope the concept will catch on, says Mr. Biswas.
Eventually, GSF wishes to give placemaking its due. Says Mr. Augustine, “We believe every art is an institution from which one can learn. Therefore, before creating any monument, we spend hours, even days, in research and to see that what we have come up with has not been made earlier.”
