BENGALURU: Bengaluru streets will soon grow beyond being mere spectators to the city life. This festive season, the streets and walls in the city will speak.
It will narrate tales of a forgotten past, gender issues, social change, public greivances and the city’s traffic woes.
Twelve Indian and four international artists with eight local Bengaluru-based artists will be reinventing city’s public spaces.The festival is being hosted by the Srishti School Of Art, Design And Technology.
City Express catches up with Ullas Hydoor, a Bengaluru-based architect, who will be transforming the Majestic City Market with an artwork, which according to him “would connect us to the roots and origins” of the city”.
At what age did you take to street art and graffiti works and why?
During the course of my education, I dabbled into several forms of arts and found a natural affinity towards artistic endeavours. Several such pursuits led me to street art, graffiti and public art installations. After copious amounts of time fooling around in the new medium, I found the perfect platform to express my views on life, society and its short comings. My art is highly reflective of the prevailing socio-cultural conflicts of today.
Why does Bengaluru need street art?
Bengaluru is picking up in terms of the space it provides for public art and there is a lot that can be done. People are leading a fast-paced life where they do not have a single moment to appreciate what surrounds them. Bengaluru has to gain that momentum where people stop for a minute to appreciate things.
What kind of street art will you be painting at the Majestic City Market?
I am trying to create a piece, which would connect us to the roots and origin of the city. Why and how Bengaluru came into being. Trying to remember the heroes of Bengaluru and how the city was mapped to fit every need back then.
You will be mapping a 100 year history of the city by tracing the growth of housing spaces in Bengaluru. What kind of research went into this?
While I was studying architecture, we did a college project to redevelop the Avenue Road area, while at it I got to connect to this city in a different way. I learnt the stories, origins, myths and legends attached around Bengaluru. The city became a person there. After that I tried to learn why it got its name, its surprising how there are more than one story about its name. Then I learnt how the city grew, how the urbanization and the IT era changed the beautiful city to what it is now. When you want to learn the growth of a city you got to study the maps, luckily couple of close friends are practising and teaching urban design at colleges so it helped me to connect to right people through them where I got more information needed towards the project.
What do you think about the city’s relationship with map and how do you intend to depict it in art?
Maps are the cities’ story tellers - what happened, where it happened and how it happened. You can weave a beautiful narration of the growth of a city through maps. Through these maps I want to tell one of the stories of how Bengaluru got its name.
What kind of challenges do you face as a street artist?
Challenges are more out here in the public space where there is always a conflict of right and wrong. When you are a street artist, your art is out in the public, on the street, so it’s challenging to make people connect with that.
The St+Art India festival will be happening throughout October.
The public spaces that will be transformed include at Majestic City, Majestic metro station, MG road metro station, Cubbon Park, Mantri Mall, Church street and Indiranagar. The festival is being hosted by the Srishti School Of Art, Design And Technology.
“Bengaluru is a vibrant city and also a city with a lot of young design and art students who have the potential to be future artists, and through St+art Bengaluru, we want to bring quality public art in the city. We believe this will bring a change and transform the cityscape drastically through colour and art,” says Amit Syngle, President-Sales, Marketing & Technology, Asian Paints Ltd.
The paint company has collaborated with St+art Foundation for the project.