St+Art festival, Bengaluru: Painting the town Red!
Art
World of Art
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December 05, 2016 at 07:28 AM
This October witnessed the joy of St+Art urban arts festival spreading colours across the streets of Bengaluru for the very first time. International and national Street artists gathered in Bengaluru, to paint the town red with their creativity, flooding its streets with murals, installations, performances, talks and screenings. From Cubbon Park to MG Road to Majestic Metro Stations, art centres were formed in startling public spaces, attracting a diverse crowd, to experience an eccentric form of art celebration. The festival, saw the works of 12 prolific Indian urban artists along with 4 influential international artists. The lineup of artists included Appupen, Aravani Art Project, Baadal, GuessWho, Shivo Shiv Suleman and Ullas Hydoor from Bengaluru itself. The works of well-known artists, Daku, Anpu from Delhi, Inkbrushnme, Sameer Kulavoor and Siddhartha Kararwal from Mumbai and international artists Artez from Serbia, Dan Goldman + Ram Devineni from USA, Remed from France, were also featured.
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internet sources
This was not the first time artists congregated to celebrate street art in India. The very first St+Art fiesta was held back in 2014, in Delhi and Mumbai, followed by Delhi again earlier this year. The event was in association with Asian paints, BMRC (Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation), and hosted by Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, in collaboration with Art in Transit student initiative. In the span of one month, the city experienced guided tours, workshops and live music events while the public spaces of Bangalore saw a rapid transformation with an insurgence of colour and life. “A major chunk of street artists in India come from Bengaluru but you don’t see much of art in public spaces here. So the focus was not on size but to add more works,” feels Co-founder, Hanif.
This celebration is the second major fragment of the year-long ‘Festival of Stories’ organized by the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in collaboration with Cubbon Park Metro Station. 13 students of Srishti, displayed their talent through the artworks at the Cubbon Park Metro Station on October 28th. Amitabh Kumar, faculty at Srishti says, “The idea is to open spaces to dialogues, conversations and culture creation through the lens of the city”. He further adds that ST+ ART Bangalore isn’t a franchisee movement but will be “specific to the city with contextual and site-specific works and local art spaces like Jaaga, Maara, 1 Shanthi Road, IIHS, Chitrakala Parishath becoming part of it.”
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The festival started with Daku’s temporary installation 'If you won't, I will', on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. Taking the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhyan’ a step ahead with an image of Gandhi, the artist reminds us of the values that he stood for. Building on the idea of intent vs execution, the installation is thought-provoking. The same artist also put up an installation of snails, signifying the traffic issue of Bangalore streets. Wisely chosen, the location of the installation was a high traffic junction!
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Guesswho, a famous anonymous graffiti artist, was as humorous as ever with his quirky and sardonic view of the society. His stencil art popped up at various places, fresh with his Indian identity and local stories, holding a mirror for the society.
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Comic book illustrator, visual artist and musician, Appupen, brought his unique brand of skills to a wall in the Kempegowda Metro Station. He painted illustrations inspired by the the story of Dharmambudhi Lake, which dried up years ago, the land on which stands the sprawling Kempegowda Terminus and Metro station today.
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Ullas Hydoor, narrated the story of Bangalore's ever-changing landscape through his canvas. Inkbrushnme painted a particularly vibrant and flamboyant three storeyed mural for the M G Metro station, to uplift the mood of passersby. Artist Badal put up an installation of a car, which ofcourse is tweaked in his own way. His installation highlights traffic issues and talks about the amount of time wasted and spent inside the car.
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Aravani art project painted a noteworthy mural on Dhanvantari street, dedicated to the transgender, reminding us of their presence today, using the hibiscus as an analogy. “The painting uses geometric shapes that form a gender fluid face refusing to look away and the Hibiscus flower well-known for having both male and female parts. Like the trans-person, the Hibiscus grows on the fringe, a familiar bloom that lights up our streets in unapologetic burst of colour. Their colour blurs the world around them, drawing eyes as they declare Naavu Idhevi (We Exist)”. Interestingly, it has been done in collaboration with 5 transgenders who have painted their heart away.
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Sameer Kulavoor dedicated his magnificent mural to the Majestic area, portraying its history and ethos. He uses a magnet to epitomize the quality of the area to attract a wide range of people for trade, commerce and culture. He finds it interesting that as distance from magnet grows, the density of people, architecture and things reduce.
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International artists Remed and Artez painted at the Cubbon Park. Remed did the Coolant, depicting men and women engaged in spiritual pursuit using geometry While Artez painted on the inside with a simple agenda of boosting the mood of the park.
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Anpu’s painting of the moon in Ulsoor, was a huge reminder for us to take a moment from our busy lives and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us each day. "In an age where everyone is seeking connections using mediums like social media, we miss something as big as the moon, which we hardly look at anymore. Every person has wished upon the moon at some point in their life, and the moon represents our collective hopes and desires." Painting the moon was Anpu's attempt to establish it as that 'one big object' in the sky that we can all connect with.
St+Art works with the sole intention of taking art to the masses and making it accessible to a wider range of spectators. After three successful runs in Delhi and Mumbai, this is the fourth time, St+Art, has gathered street artists from India and around the world, to celebrate the spirit of art with a multitude. More often than not, the urban landscape is termed as being dull, grimy and messy. What better way to make up for it other than street art?
By putting art out there, open for people to appreciate, adds a much needed variation in the public spaces of cities. Street art runs the risk of being misjudged as vandalism. In such situations, festivals like this brings relief to the street artists and gives them the necessary impetus to showcase their talent. As art enthusiasts, one hopes to see more initiatives of similar nature in the country.
Designer :
miscellaneous
Photography :Internet Sources
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