French artist Mathilda Della Torre explores the idea of India through a workshop, India Through My Eyes, Your Eyes, Our Eyes

Manpriya Singh

Geographically speaking, it’s the exact same India. Only light years apart when seen through the eyes of another one. A regular tourist, a first time traveller, a resident, a citizen, all pour in their perspective of the same country, which forms a different world.

An experimental and interactive creative workshop India Through My Eyes, Your Eyes, Our Eyes by London-based French graphic designer and illustrator Mathilda Della Torre aims to being out and share such perspectives with students.

The two-day workshop, an endeavour by Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi, in association with Chandigarh College of Architecture, aims at providing the students associated with creative fields like architecture and interior designing, a platform to share and be open to new perspectives on art.

“As a first-time visitor to India, my idea of it is very different. During the workshop I told students to take a look at the photographs clicked by an American tourist, an Indian and by me (which will be a French white girl’s perspective) and interpret them in their own way,” shares the artist, at the end of the first part of the workshop.

Absorbing India Well and what was her perspective like. “India is loud, colourful, overwhelming and so diverse,” shares of her experiences, having been here for a month now and having already visited places like Rajasthan, Delhi, Varanasi and of course, Chandigarh.

She says, “But Chandigarh is very modern, organised and quite close to France.” Having studied graphic designing and illustration in London, her work currently shuttles between the two streams. “I told the students to interpret the photographs also with respect to colour, composition, shadows and light. During the second half of the workshop, they also bring in each photograph that means a lot of them and together we discuss it.”

She adds, “Because when it comes to creativity, ‘we’ is always smarter than ‘I’.”

As to the American photographer’s perspective, “Oh in the photographs that we have with us, he has captured the scenic beauty of India and also portrayed the country as a crowded chaotic place.” That’s yet another perspective!

The overwhelmingly incredible India

It’s lunch time and she is happily digging into Indian curries and rice, seemingly acquainted with the food and quite comfortable while at it. “Oh I love the Indian breads and can name all of them. The naan, the parantha. I love the paneer. Being a vegetarian, there are a lot of options for me.”

[email protected]