BENGALURU: For once, getting the Metro station messy with mud was not an offence. More than 50 students from Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology worked for almost two weeks on a mural for the Cubbon Metro station, as part of their Art in Transit project in collaboration with Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL). But what makes it special is that the piece is made from mud sourced from more than 65 recharged wells. The idea, say the students, is to give an interpretation to ground water table of the city and the work that goes into digging and reviving a well.
The project was conceptualised in collaboration with Biome, a non-profitable organisation that works on rain water harvesting and ground water recharge. “Two years ago, we were able to revive seven old open wells at Cubbon park and we have done more than 60 recharge wells. Given that so many people use the Cubbon Park Metro station and the area actually has a ground water table, we wanted to put that into a theme to create art at the metro station,” said Shubha Ramachandran, water team lead at Biome.
Yash Bhandari, a team member of Art in Transit, said the main aim was to create awareness among people about the depletion of groundwater reserves in the city. “The need to bring back the age old tradition of water conservation is depicted in these printings .”
Anju Mistry, project lead of Art in Transit, said the idea of the mural was also to make it interactive while depicting the water story of the city. “It also gives them a glimpses into the lives of the well diggers.” The design starts with a history of Bengaluru’s glorious past when it got water from six different rivers from Nandi hills.
It then shifts to current times when Bengaluru is at the brink of a water crisis. Mistry also confirms that Art in Transit is coming up with more such murals in Metro stations at Rajajinagar and Indiranagar.And since public engagement was key, Art in Transit also hosted a community painting and poetry event at the Cubbon Park Metro Station recently, in order to invite the public to engage with the project and the well-diggers who are changing Bengaluru’s water future. Alfa R, an artist who was at the event, said, “I felt very close to nature when I painted a story of the past, present and future of water reserves in Bengaluru .Painting with mud shows how we want a water revolution that does not harm
the environment”.