The 'Bridging Cultures' canvas displayed at IIM-A
It was an honour for Open Space Ahmedabad when the prestigious Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad and its Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (IIM-A) acknowledged the innovative social experiment that Open Space Ahmedabad conducted in March this year with its 'Bridging Cultures: Living Together' paintings. (see our earlier post: http://osahmedabad.blogspot.com/2009/05/culturally-diverse-mural-march-16-21.html#links).
On August 4, Open Space held an interaction of the artists with audience members -- faculty and students of IIM-A and other civic and educational institutions. This event was the fourth in our ‘Bridging Cultures: Living Together’ : the first being the camp itself, second the display of the canvas in an art gallery on April 11, third the display of the canvas on the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad campus in June and now the interaction with audiences in collaboration with IIM-A. This was the first time in six months that Open Space in Ahmedabad brought together an audience that was largely non-Gujarati where their interaction was with Gujarat-based artists.
From left: Love, Jignesh, Megha, Deepa, Sudeshna during the art camp in March
Five of the six young artists who made the painting answered questions and gave comments about the theme of the painting, their experience working as a team on a single canvas, techniques and use of specific colours, whether the theme of diversity is reflected in subsequent works. These were Deepa Mehta, Love Mevada, Hiral Vyas, Megha Vyas and Jignesh Vanza. Sudeshna Sil has returned to her hometown, Kolkata, having finished her studies in Ahmedabad. “We understood the word ‘diversity’ only by its dictionary meaning. I have not yet understood it completely but have started looking at it closely in my own life now,” Love said, to a question from an audience member about the impact of the theme on their lives. Deepa added, “Initially we were very scared of losing our individuality on canvas. Each one was waiting to dominate their frames on canvas. Our biggest challenge – in which we succeeded – was to get rid of this ‘me first’ mentality".
The most interesting part about the interaction was the interpretation of the painting by the audience members. Most saw it as seven different frames and some derived a holistic meaning from it. As the principal of RH Patel Arts and Commerce College, Prof. SN Iyer said, “It’s a ‘democratic’ canvas -- no one can interpret it in just one way, just like no one can explain society or life in one way.” The candour among audience members was equally interesting. An engineering student found “little logic” to how the art world works. To which an architecture student said that artists work in a free-flowing way, yet there is logic there because ultimately there is a connection of thoughts and a final outcome. “It’s like people connecting through a matrix. There’s some bit of engineering and some bit of free-flowing flexibility. It is as inexplicable as diversity in real life!” The audience comprised PhD students (Fellow Programme in Management) of IIM-A, lecturers and principal of RH Patel College of Commerce and Arts, faculty and staff of IIM-A, engineering and architecture students, youth participants from former Open Space Ahmedabad events, an officer from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, among others. The interaction was facilitated by urban planner-theatre actress Manvita Baradi from Ahmedabad with one of our art camp resource persons, Esther David, present to reply to art-related questions.
What made this series of 'Bridging Culture' events a unique experiment? Open Space in Ahmedabad aims to bridge social divides of caste, religion, sex and economic status among youth of the city by means of outreach events. These events act as engaging forms of collective activity that coerce participants to work as teams and, thereby, interact with one another and appreciate one another's cultural and social background. We ensure social diversity in selection of participants, as was done in our team of artists in the 'Bridging Cultures' project -- all six artists belonged to different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
At the display of the 'Bridging Cultures' painting on April 11, 2009 at Catharsis Art Gallery
