A lot can happen over coffee!
SIMPLY PUNJABI DISCOVERS ART’S NEW ADDRESS IN CHANDIGARH.
We discover art’s new address in the concrete city, Chandigarh.
“A pologies for being late, I was held up by the cops. They didn’t like the fact that I have painted my car in different patterns. But I am quite used to it now.” This is Shifa Mahajan, 24, a former investment banker, who left it all to paint her passion. “I am a professional footballer with the North Acton FC in West London. There is something very similar about the game and painting abstracts,” Sahil, 21, originally from Chandigarh and now based in London says as he runs his fingers through his mohawk hair.
Books N Brew café in Sector 16, Chandigarh has played host to more than 50 young artists now. On most occasions, the work of these young artists put up by the coffee shop has generally been all sold out. Not just a place to hang out, this coffee shop has emerged as a major centre for youngsters wanting to showcase their work. From young painters and photographers to those flirting with installations, this is one space that firsttime artists can never forget.
Piya Bakshi, 19, an English Honours student at MCM, Chandigarh, who has been drawing figures with dark pencils ever since the age of four, says it would have been tough to exhibit her work had this place not existed. “Which art gallery opens its doors readily to 19-year-olds? For people like me who are so self-critical, exhibiting your work at a place frequented by youngsters and not major critics can be a big relief,” she says. For Amitoj Monga, another a 19-year-old, who loves working in water colours and oil, exhibiting in this space might not have been a very serious exercise initially. “I started showing my work here three months ago out of sheer curiosity. But the phenomenal response precipitated me to show more. The best part is that people buy too. This also has to do with the fact that the prices of works displayed here aren’t sky-high,” he says.
“I am now perusing a full time acting career, but sketching my inner-most feelings on paper with an 8 B pencil is something that I can never divorce. You have no idea what this space means for me. And it’s not just to do with the fact that it has given me an outlet, but also the chance to meet people with similar sensibilities,” adds Siddharth Kaushal, 25.
Chandigarh, which was earlier considered a ‘ concrete’ city with very little surface inclination towards the arts, seem to be undergoing a kind of metamorphosis. With two major literature festivals that concluded in November and several hotels buying art from painters across the region, culture finally seems to be finding a way in the city’s labyrinths.
Tanya Saggi may be just a 17year-old, but she has exhibited here thrice already. “I started painting portraits when I was 16. This region desperately needs more spaces like these,” she says. Point out Edward Munch’s Scream replica she is
displaying at the café and she says, “I am yet to figure out my own style. That is why you will see a collage of influences in whatever I do, even if it’s a replica.”
Photographer Vidusha Kumar is convinced that those who come to these places are interested in art. “There are so many other cafés in town, but we are the USP of this place,” she says. Kumar, who does landscape photography, thinks this is the first step leading to exposure at major galleries. “You never know who spots you here,” she adds.
The owner of Books N Brew, Vishal Bhasin, 32, who runs the café along with his wife Aarti, agrees that people do dig art in the city. “Most exhibitions we hold invite a phenomenal response.” Ask him the secret behind his café’s success, and he says, “We don’t have any background in the F&B business. And that is our strongest point. We don’t claim to serve an ‘authentic cuisine’. For us, it is home food and free flow of creative energies. We wan to be known not just as a restaurant but also as a major cultural centre.”