Bengaluru becomes a design lab
Reimagining what homes and cities could look like, Bengaluru will soon turn into a temporary lab for artistic ideas and practices, writes Nikita Puri
Removedf rom the loud horns and trafficsnarls, the team at Total Environment, a Ben ga lu ru based architecture and property development firm, is working on massive curved structures of grass and shrubs. Lined up together, these structures will give the appearance of a continuously twisting ribbon. The installation will be“a dream-like infinity loop ”, explains the firm’ s founder, Kamal Sagar.
In less than a fort night, when the city witnesses the first edition of Ben ga lu ruby Design, a design-centricevent, this structure will be placed over the fountain on the concrete island at St Mark’ s Circle. The installation will give passers-by in Ben ga lu ru’ s central business district a taste of what cities could look like with gr ea er interventions of greenspaces. In the Whitefield neighbourhood, version soft his green cover will double as stalls selling everything from landscaping to home furniture.
Ben ga lu ruby Design is a multidisciplinary concept that will play out over 10 days in different parts of the city. It kicks off on November 23 and wraps up with a maker’ s bazaar offering knick-knacks( December 1 and 2). Discourse sand discussions, site-specific exhibits and workshop son paper orig ami, toy making, perfumery, lighting, gaming ,3 D printing, and soon, are all part of the event. “We want to democrat is ea nd demystify design ,” say the event’ s founders, Sup rita Moo r thy and Pri yank a Shah Bhandary.
Moor thy is a curator, historian, programme director of India Design Forum and an avid collector of dolls. Bhandary, a branding and design professional, isalsoa national-level tennis player. They came together to create curiosity about design in everyday life and to make it “more approachable”.
In theory, that’s at all order. In practice, it’s coming together beautifully. For instance, while Bhandary is curating a day-long event on wearable technology, Moorthy is collecting chairs for a project called20+18. Says Moorthy, “A presence of a chair isak into the presence of a person and design can really lift up the chair' s attributes beyond its basic functionality ."
Hoping to use stories to talk about design and aesthetics, also on display will be a documentary on the colour indigo, including how villagers in Dhamadka, Gujarat, extract the indigo dye (or asmani or neel) from plants by hand. Indigo’s story is told through a video installation by Asian Paints at UB City, Bengaluru’s upmarket mall.
Even the staircase at UB City will tell a story when Bengaluru by Design kicks off.
DISCOURSES AND DISCUSSIONS, SITE-SPECIFIC EXHIBITS AND WORKSHOPS ON TOY-MAKING, LIGHTING AND 3D PRINTING ARE ALL PART OF THE EVENT
Coated in 1,000-2,000 upcycled and recycled sheets from city-based Bluecat Paper, a maker of handmade paper, it’ll talk about freedom through a print of birds soaring towards the light. The event also hopes to promote environment-friendly design interventions, say the founders. Bluecat’s KavyaMadappa, for instance, makes paper not from trees, but from cotton and husks of corn and coffee.
The UB City mall, the site for Madappa's installation, currently has over 200 artworks displayed as part of Art Bengaluru 2018. This ongoing festival features the work of 17 artists, including works by sculptor and enamellist Balan Nambiar. Artworks are priced between ~13,000 and ~6.5 million.
The works at Art Bengaluru, all mounted at UB City, include D Venkatapathy’s linear hillscapes in pen and ink on paper, Romicon Revola’s video projects on water, and Saju Kunhan’s oil canvas of a concrete jungle. Kunhan’s artwork has never been exhibited before owing to demands of space: it stands at 30’ by 8’ in its tribute to Mumbai, Kunhan’s “first experience of a mega city”.
The crowds brought in by back-to-back events such as this art exhibition as well as recentdesign-ledconferences, likeBengaluru Design Week, area testament to how the interest in artistic practices extends beyond designers, artists and collectors.
After Art Ben ga lu ru 2018 wraps upon November 18 and Ben ga lu ruby Design kicks off in pockets from White field to Electronic City,UB City will continue to play host: this is the venue for talks organised by the India Design Forum, featuring those at the fore front of art and design interventions, including Re va ti Kant of Titan and San jay Gar go fR aw Man go. The line-up of international speakers includes Brendan M cG et rick, curatorofUK’s Global Grad Show; Brian Park es of Australia’ s JamFactory; andLondon-basedartist Karolina Mer ska, apaja ki maker( pajak ia re Polish chandeliers crafted out of rye straw and paper ). Some workshops are free, and talks are ticketed at ~3,000 for two days.
“We want people to have opinions on design. Hate it or like it, we want them to talk about it,” saysMoorthy. As the festival looks at starting out in a few pockets and then expanding over the next few years to touch all of the city’s neighbourhoods, this is perhaps the beginning of a new identity for Bengaluru.