Art: Dance, Painting

Enthralling Dance Performance in Midst of Crumbling Heritage:

In 2007, a Brazilian Kathak dancer, performed at Dhal ni Pol, depicting the sad story of loss. The lost past, the heritage - the thread connecting us to the to the earth where we belong. Through her dance, she brought ruins of the old city alive.The performance was called "The Colour Red", symbolising pain of collapsing past.

Through Heritage Festival, many organizations have consciously worked towards the preservation of the city heritage in various creative ways. But, dancing among the ruins to manifest the screams of those beautifully carved buildings was an experience in itself. 

Manuela Banini is a performance artist and an educator working mostly in Brazil, England and India. She worked extensively against the disappearing heritage.

Various eminent newspapers covered this one-off dance performance: 

Space is generally conceptualized or perceived as static entity. Manuela Banini's dance challenged this static conception of space, and brought people face to face with an enthralling experience of city and dance. As the dancer's feet moved telling the story of destruction, the ruins around her stood as a live projection of the dance. The dance was posited between the people and the city - connecting them, bridging them.

Colours of the City, Perspective Roads, and the Built Heritage on Canvas by Harshil Patel:

In 2008, Harshil Patel, displayed twelve of his paintings under the title of "Halo of Ahmedabad's Heritage." The artist has roamed around the city of Ahmedabad at night to experience the city in its essences. The Painter claims to lay out the city on canvas in its form.Being brought up in the walled city of Ahmedabad, the artist relate most to the rich cityscape of that part of the city, and draws inspiration from it. 

  

Harshil Patel gave a live demonstration by painting in front  of Kalupur Swaminarayana Tample. He awed everyone present by his talent including Maharahshri and other dignitaries. 

    

Performative and Visual coming together:

It is said that where nothing reaches, art does. Art bridges the abyss created and recreated by the human race. One such artist of Ahmedabad, inspired by the mystery of the cityscape, translated his vision and perspective on canvas. The promising Young artist Harshil Patel's paintings depict city's struggle to hold on to its Heritage. Bringing art to its climax, Manuela Banini danced in front of these paintings juxtaposing the city and the art.

 

Ek Varso

Restoration and Art:

The house was known as house no: 3044 at Desai ni Pol, Ahmedabad. This house was resided by the Mehta Family since 1896. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation restored the house in late 1990s. This was one of the first restoration projects of AMC. Since 1996, the building is now being used by CHETNA, Centre for Health, Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness. Interestingly, Shri Vijay Shrimali and later many other artists have tried to put this image of the house on canvas. This is where a new era of restoration and putting the walled city on canvas started for Ahmedabad. Since then, many painting exhibitions with the motif of Ahmedabad have taken place over the period of time and especially during the heritage week. Such art exercises are not only for the sake of art, but to revive the colours of the beautiful old city. Inspired from the painting, the city heritage collection introduced a beautifully crafted copper memento. Such initiatives reached out to a larger audience, contributing greatly in the heritage revival process.    

Artist and the City:

The City becomes a habit. The urban living made the city too familiar to notice anything extraordinary about it. People passed by the beautiful heritage buildings everyday in a hurry to reach their offices or schools without noticing them. Thus, people also lost their sense of belonging and their pride in their own city. Thus, it was necessary to renew citizens appreciation through creative eyes. Ahmedabad is a city of a vibrant artist community. Local and international photographers have captured the city. During the World Heritage Festival 2003, the AMC invited painters to capture the city as they see it. 

 

 

 

 

   

                             

 

 

Artists' Impressions: 

In this festival for the first time thirty one artists came together to paint the city. Amit Ambalal Shah, Anant Mehta, Apurva Desai, Arvind Patel, Ashvin Chauhan, Avinash Thaker, Bansi Khatri,Bharat Panchal, Bharat Patni, Bharat Vitalia, Bhavarsinh Pawar, Gajendra Shah, Gayatri Trivedi, Gita Pitroda, Haku Shah, Hindol Bhrambhatt, Jayesh Shukla, Jitu Oghani, Kanti Soni, Kumar Chauhan, Mahendra Parmar, Makarand Vania, Manhar Kapadiya, Milan Desai, Nabibaksh Mansoori, Nayu Mistri, Natu Parikh, Nikita Parikh, Shefali Nayan, VinodPatel and Vrindavan Solanki captured the city as they saw it. 

Sketching the Gates:

In 2009, Catharsis Gallery organized an exhibition on the gates of Ahmedabad sketched by Shri Natu Mistri. These sketches were in black and white. 

Various Other Art Projects:

Many Such programmes and exhibitions have taken place. In 2007, an artists' walk, workshop and exhibition on the paintings of the walled city of Ahmedabad was coordinated by Shri Arvind Vakani in 2007. In the same year a discussion on "Role of Art in Conservation" was being held at the House of MG by Theatre and Media Centre. The old city of Ahmedabad also attracted many photographers. Photographers have tried to capture the mystery of the heritage on the frames. In 2007, one such photography exhibition on the Havelis of Ahmedabad happened at the Green House. Shri T. S. Radhawa and other photographers exhibited their photographs.






 

Paintings Influenced from the Folk Stories of Ahmedabad:

In 2010, Bhairavi Modi exhibited paintings influenced from various folk stories of Ahmedabad.