The country’s first International Public Art Symposium (IPAS) was inaugurated by Artists Network Promoting Indian Culture (ANPIC) managing trustee Sashanka Mohapatra and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) Additional Commissioner Bhawani Shankar Chaini at Kalinga Nagar here on Thursday.
Mohapatra said the IPAS is not only an initiative to aware people on waste materials through art but to encourage and inspire the young artists to come up with new ideas of awareness through art.
The congregation of artists of international stature would encourage more people for showing interest towards art in promoting Odisha's art and culture in various national and international platforms, he added.
He also said that the symposium would create sculptures out of waste materials in which artists of 14 countries would be involved for next twenty days. Such sculptures would be displayed in an open air sculpture museum.
International artists from Spain, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina, Italia, China, Belgium, Australia, Netherland, Malaysia and South Africa are participating in the event.
Chaini said the theme reduce, reuse and recycle of the symposium is envisioned to make artworks from waste material and scrap metal which would propagate eco-friendly message to the society.
The event would also help the State Government in promoting better environmental practices, like complete banning of plastic bags, reduction of green house gases and carbon footprint.
Among others, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) City Engineer Debasundar Mohapatra, BDA Assistant Town Planner Suparna Surabhita Das and ANPIC curator Kshitish Das were present.