Writing on the Wall

The Wall Project began in Mumbai in 2009. The five kilometre long wall at Tulsi Pipe Road in central Mumbai is the project’s upbeat canvas. In Bangalore,

several local artists in association with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have beautified the city. Ditto for Orissa. In Chennai,political figures still dominate the streets. Delhi has welcomed the graffiti movement through a music band that promotes dubstep in India.

But on the website unurth.com,a street art portal that traces the development of street art in the world,India is missing. British newspaper The Guardian’s best street art listing in the world also doesn’t feature India. Yet,the Indian street art story has never looked more promising. A small group of artists and photographers are on the mission of revolutionising the streets,giving it an independent flavour.

“It’s really about using this interesting medium in the best way,” says visual artist Dhanya Pilo,one of the founders of The Wall Project. “For the canvas we usually look for walls which look like they desperately need a new life,or are dirty,or just part of an interesting landscape or building in a public space. Then we get a verbal permission from the owners.” The project existed fairly independently till the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC),impressed by its work,got associated with it.

In Bengaluru,the Municipal Corporation has sanctioned artists to paint 7.5 lakh square feet of wall on 63 main city roads. As an undercurrent,several independent pieces of visual art are also on display on random walls

in Bengaluru.

The No Man’s Art Gallery gave Mumbai a visit in July this year. While the initiative is an online gallery that supports young talent worldwide,every three months they pop up in a different city in a different country,where they exhibit local young talent. Emmelie Koster,the curator of the exhibition displayed pictures in the run down interiors of the New Great Eastern Mills in Byculla. The exhibition got a tremendous response. Ask Koster if she thinks that there is an underground art movement brewing in India and she says,“Definitely. There are so many special places in Mumbai that are just empty. It doesn’t take that much to turn a space like that into a gallery. And art should not just be about caviar and pink champagne. Underground art movements are able to open up the art world to everyone.” Judging from the response to No Man’s Art Pop Up Gallery Mumbai,she thinks it’s safe to say that Mumbai is ready for young creative entrepreneurs to take over the city and create their own platforms to show art.