A unique project that entails exploring the history, lived realities and social relations of the various communities and addressing issues of access, exclusion and discrimination, as well as understanding the aspirations of the community in Bhubaneswar will begin at the Old Town area on October 18 and continue over two months.
To be organised by artists Jagannath Panda and Premjish Achari, the project will be located in a trail of 1.3 km in the historical city.
The street houses, important medieval monuments, modern and contemporary architecture, schools, shops, public institutions, etc will be explored by the artists.
They will interact with the community, their history, personal memories, etc. to map the transformations and record not only the memories but the aspirations of the community and their dreams and yearnings about the city.
“This is the first public art venture of Odisha on such a scale and will attempt to leverage contemporary art to inspire the community.
The artists will stay in the old town of Bhubaneswar for one month and interact with the space, local community and young art students. Students from various art colleges have agreed to volunteer for this venture. Art colleges have opened up their studios for the visiting artists to work there. Various outreach prgrammes such as seminars, children’s workshops, film screenings and cultural programmes have been planned,” said the organisers.
In all, 20 artists from Odisha and other States of India as also from abroad have confirmed their participation in the project. The important contemporary artists, who are participating from India and abroad, are Gigi Scaria, Sudarshan Shetty, Arunkumar HG, Markus Baenziger, etc.
The Tourism and Culture Department of the Odisha Government, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority and the Tata Steel are the official partners of the campaign.