Art on Wheels

The self-financed initiative,envisaged as an art-camp-travel event,is being organised by Peripherals,an artists’ initiative based in Delhi,with members from Kolkata,Bihar,Jharkhand,Jammu and Kashmir,Mumbai and Delhi. Salim,the force behind Peripherals,adds,“The artists will travel on a specially painted train carriage. The journey will begin in Shantiniketan in West Bengal and weave through Kolkata,Ranchi ,Patna and Lucknow and then take to the hilly terrains of Dehradun,Shimla,Srinagar and Jammu before a grand finale in New Delhi.”

The 30-strong foreign contingent on the train will comprise dancer Greta Mendez from Trinidad,artist Anna Macleod from Ireland ,street performer Jessica Antoinette Garbers and Pakistani artists Sana Mirza,Shakir Khan and Fatima Umar. During the journey,hopes Salim,ideas can be tested and attitudes questioned. “The journey from station to station will also help us meet hundreds of local artists who are lost in the commercial milieu. We also aim to provide a thrust to performance art,which hasn’t taken off in India very strongly.”

Ashok Vajpeyi,Chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi,which is hosting the Karavan at its regional centres,says,“It’s going to a bit chaotic,a sort of wild thing,but it is a dramatic way of increasing awareness and there will definitely be an impact.” A proposal for the project is pending with the Ministry of Railways. “If we cannot travel by train,we’ll do it in buses,” says Salim.

Life at the camp will be abuzz with activity. Apart from workshops and interactive programmes with the local artists,the Karavan will engage in community work. “We will work on dilapidated wells,public toilets and broken buildings. The artists will also hold interactive discussions on ways of improving living standards,benefits of planting trees and so on,” he says. In Delhi ,the Karavan will hold an exhibition,with video documentation of its activities,at Lalit Kala Akademi.