As part of the 'Indo-German Jamboree', the Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan presented a unique interactive exhibition, titled 'Post-Oil City: The history of the City's future -- Bangalore Gardens Reloaded', which is on till February 3 at the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum.
The exhibition examines Bangalore's nickname -- 'The Garden City'. According to the group of artists that took part in the exhibition, the reality is very different.
They stress on the fact that trees are being cut, traffic increasing everyday, garbage accumulating and point out that there are hardly any gardens left in Bangalore.
The curator, Elke Falat from Germany, decided against bringing in experts from abroad; instead, artists from the City were asked to come up with solutions to the problems and represent these through the artistic medium.
These artists, as local experts of the City, were asked to critically react to the issues and put them in a local context. "The decision to involve artists instead of scientists is based on the reasoning that both artists and scientists share similar tools for observation, search for knowledge and forms of visualisation of display," explains Elke, who has been in the City for nearly three months, getting in touch with the artists and discussing the work with them.
The participating artists are Suresh Kumar, Surekha, Prayas Abhinav, Sunoj D, Bhavani G S, Bharathesh G D, Dimple B Shah, Raghu Kondur, Madhu D, Nandesh Shanthi, Suresh Jayaram, Mangala Anebermath and Ayisha Abraham.
One got to see many innovative and different perceptions of issues related to water, energy, waste and lack of space.
One of the interesting and striking exhibits was the 'Ragi.net' by Surekha. The artist had taken a computer keyboard and grown ragi on it. The discarded keyboard, symbolising information technology and waste, and the ragi — representing the staple food for farmers — spoke about the urbanisation of the farmlands. The work definitely caught eyeballs.
The exhibition was also an interactive one, since many of the artists allowed the visitors to take part in the ongoing work.
Suresh Kumar G's, for instance, had organised an exhibit called 'Once farmers friends are today your urban friends too'.
He kept a vermi-compost pit, inviting visitors to throw organic waste into it and help spread awareness about one of the oldest techniques of turning organic waste into rich manure.
Elke informs that the exhibition was also a learning process for her. "Bringing this whole thing together was an amazing learning experience. I not only got to know the City better through these artists but also learnt to handle many things like monkey problems and space constraints. I also got to meet many wonderful people here," she says.
The exhibition is open from 10 am to 6 pm.
The exhibition examines Bangalore's nickname -- 'The Garden City'. According to the group of artists that took part in the exhibition, the reality is very different.
They stress on the fact that trees are being cut, traffic increasing everyday, garbage accumulating and point out that there are hardly any gardens left in Bangalore.
The curator, Elke Falat from Germany, decided against bringing in experts from abroad; instead, artists from the City were asked to come up with solutions to the problems and represent these through the artistic medium.
These artists, as local experts of the City, were asked to critically react to the issues and put them in a local context. "The decision to involve artists instead of scientists is based on the reasoning that both artists and scientists share similar tools for observation, search for knowledge and forms of visualisation of display," explains Elke, who has been in the City for nearly three months, getting in touch with the artists and discussing the work with them.
The participating artists are Suresh Kumar, Surekha, Prayas Abhinav, Sunoj D, Bhavani G S, Bharathesh G D, Dimple B Shah, Raghu Kondur, Madhu D, Nandesh Shanthi, Suresh Jayaram, Mangala Anebermath and Ayisha Abraham.
One got to see many innovative and different perceptions of issues related to water, energy, waste and lack of space.
One of the interesting and striking exhibits was the 'Ragi.net' by Surekha. The artist had taken a computer keyboard and grown ragi on it. The discarded keyboard, symbolising information technology and waste, and the ragi — representing the staple food for farmers — spoke about the urbanisation of the farmlands. The work definitely caught eyeballs.
The exhibition was also an interactive one, since many of the artists allowed the visitors to take part in the ongoing work.
Suresh Kumar G's, for instance, had organised an exhibit called 'Once farmers friends are today your urban friends too'.
He kept a vermi-compost pit, inviting visitors to throw organic waste into it and help spread awareness about one of the oldest techniques of turning organic waste into rich manure.
Elke informs that the exhibition was also a learning process for her. "Bringing this whole thing together was an amazing learning experience. I not only got to know the City better through these artists but also learnt to handle many things like monkey problems and space constraints. I also got to meet many wonderful people here," she says.
The exhibition is open from 10 am to 6 pm.