New airport gives artists a welcome platform

IT may be the business capital of India, but art is not too far removed from Mumbai. Visitors to the city, flying in and out of the brand new terminal two (T2) of the airport, might wonder whether they are at a busy airport or an art gallery.

Some 7,000 works by 1,500 Indian artists are displayed throughout the terminal, which features wood-panelled ceilings and walls illustrated with the works of over 1,000 ancient and contemporary artists. India’s largest public art programme strikes the visitor — the terminal will ultimately handle 40 million travellers — as it gets displayed on 18-metre high walls running three kilometres across the massive structure.

The art wall, dubbed Jaya He, features a series of artworks along the walkways. It has been conceived as an initiation into the immediate environment and the larger context of the airport, of Mumbai and of India as a whole. Jaya He has two distinct sections — the one in the arrivals corridor consists of specially commissioned artworks that map Mumbai as a layered narrative, covering daily life in the metropolis, scenes from Bollywood and the world of high finance.

The second wall runs like a central curvilinear spine, reflecting — in the words of Rajeev Sethi, the eminent curator — “artwork of an immense sculptural tableau of India’s plural cultural legacy, living traditions and contemporary artistic expression”.

While large corporates — including the GVK group, which operates the airport — continue to invest in art, smaller bodies also extend their support to various initiatives and individual artists. For instance, the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA), a not-for-profit that encourages, promotes and supports innovative work in the field of visual arts, has over the years backed young artists in Mumbai and other parts of India.

FICA was recently given the ‘not-for-profit art initiative of the year’ award at the inaugural Forbes India Art awards function, for its outstanding initiatives and contributions to the art world in the areas of outreach, education, residencies, research, grants and other activities that promotes the cause of Indian art both within the country and globally.

“The award is an indicator of the art community’s faith in FICA and we value this a great deal,” remarks Vidya Shivadas, director, FICA. “Our motto is to support practice and research and generate platforms for further dissemination and education.” According to her, the huge demand for children’s workshops at the India Art fair reflects how much people want to engage with art and establish a meaningful relationship with it.

The foundation has given its FICA Emerging Artist award to four young artists from Mumbai in recent years. They include Shreyas Karle and Hemali Bhuta, who currently run an art space in CONA, and Charmi Gada Shah and Sujith SN. Its first public art grant was given in 2007 to artist Shilpa Gupta for her poster project for TimeOut Mumbai.

The foundation has in the past supported Serpentine Gallery’s travelling exhibition, Indian Highway, an exhibition of contemporary Indian art curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Julia Peyton Jones. It has also supported the exhibition Where Three Dreams Cross — 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, at the Whitechapel Gallery, London.

In its seventh year now, the foundation has instituted the Ila Dalmia FICA Research Grant, explains Shivadas. “We will be doing a series of special programmes and events in August parallel to the solo show of the emerging artist award 2012 recipient Gipin Varghese’s solo show in New Delhi. We have some other educational programmes lined up for later in the year as well.”

Many of FICA’s grant recipients have been young graduates starting their independent practice. Its grants have supported around 20 young artists and researchers so far.

Its annual programmes include the public art grant, the research fellowship for visual artists and writers and the Emerging Artist Award. It is also focused on children’s’ programming as well as the setting up of an archive of Contemporary Indian Art. And through its exhibition grant, it aims to support Indian art exhibitions in museums abroad, and hopes to bring groundbreaking exhibitions to India.

nithin@khaleejtimes.com