Stroll down the wide, colonial-era roads of Colaba in South Bombay towards Sassoon Docks. The stench of fish is overpowering. There is, however, real pleasure too—vividly painted murals, largescale installations and a plethora of new media art that aptly reflect the local surroundings, the sea and the city. One of the oldest docks in Mumbai, first used as the base for cotton trade and later as a fishing harbour, Sassoon is currently hosting the three-month-long Mumbai Urban Art Festival (MUAF) helmed by the St+Art India Foundation and Asian Paints.
“Our theme for the festival this year, ‘City in Flux’, aims to explore Mumbai’s relationship with water. We feel that even though the city is built on the sea, it’s relationship with this element isn’t very strong. By encompassing the dock in beautiful art, we wanted to provide an opportunity for people to explore this heritage site, and to see the docks through the perspective of art,” says artist and artistic director of St+art India Foundation, Hanif Kureshi.
Elsewhere, in the northern part of India, the arid desert city of Jaipur transformed into a literati’s delight through the recently concluded literature festival. This year, however, cognoscenti also browsed through art created by contemporary local artists at select locations across the city as part of Jaipur Art Week (January 18-25). Directed by the non-profit organisation Public Arts Trust of India (PATI), the second edition of the art affair was prudently timed to coincide with the Jaipur Literature Festival to tap into its likeminded audience.
“The idea of Jaipur Art Week was conceptualised as a community-driven project to draw in local artists and institutions. This year, the focus was on Rajasthan-based contemporary artists, who are either born in the region, are part of the community or have been inspired by the area,” says Sana Rezwan, Principal, PATI. After living abroad for 20 years, Rezwan, who founded New-York based The Art Lab Studio, an art marketing agency specialising in strategy and partnerships, returned to India to join her family business. Once here, she envisioned a platform that would encourage local creativity and engagement, with the objective of encouraging arts education and the creation of jobs in this field.
These city-specific events are heralding an important change in Indian art. They glorify local institutions while patronising artistic practices that often escape the purview of traditional gallery and institution-led patronage. Both Mumbai and Jaipur have plenty to offer locals and visitors alike, yet this is where their similarities end.
The MUAF, almost exclusively, showcases installations of varying sizes, such as Intuitions and Illusions at Sassoon Docks; an alternate idea of what ‘home’ could be in the Asian Paints Art House (which is also located on the dock); urban tactical interventions like edible gardens, multipurpose seating, sports courts, and more at the Mahim(E) Art District; and other landmark murals around the city. These are things, which, in Kureshi’s words, “respond to the place they are located in”, because traditional art can limit access owing to its precious materiality. Thus, in a manner of speaking, the location is the fulcrum of the festival, more so than the art. A tie-up with the Mumbai Port Authority, which is celebrating its 150th year, ensured that the art would work to spread the meaningful message on the changing dynamics of the Sassoon Docks.
Jaipur Art Week’s focus, however, was on engaging with local craft-based enterprises like an art and design intersection at Frozen Music and a group show of women artists at Jaipur Rugs. Institutions like Jaipur’s oldest museum Albert Hall showed contemporary artist Lochan Upadhyay. Rajmahal Palace RAAS displayed an installation by local artist Tanushree Sarkar.
There were studio visits with contemporary art collective ‘Wolf Jaipur’, and a display of third generation miniature artist, Riyaz Uddin. The intention was to, “showcase works of art informed by the concerns around the perspectives nurtured by aesthetics, architecture, and cultural conversations of Jaipur”, in Rezwan’s words.
Another striking difference between the two art events is their scale—where Mumbai has over 60 participating artists hailing from 15 countries of Asia, Africa and Europe, Jaipur picked 17 artists from a pool of 50 applicants, each of whom are local or connected to Rajasthan in a way. Both make a strong case for more regional art events to take place in the rest of the country.