Here city is the canvas

Gurnaaz Kaur

It’s a festival of people, togetherness and everything that makes Chandigarh so beautiful. At the ongoing Chandigarh Urban Festival (CUF-20), the ceremonial street of Chandigarh, Jan Marg, along with the People’s Plaza in the Capitol Complex is infused with art, theatre, music, food and a plethora of fun-filled, vibrant activities. A highlight among these is the art workshop and installation display by Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi.

As the city administration intends to bring together the entire cross-section of citizens through this platform, Bheem Malhotra, chairman of CLKA, says the art workshop is an effort in support of the vision to introduce Chandigarh the city to Chandigarh the citizens. “One way of looking at it is that public connects through art and another way of saying it that art is a reflection of public. Ours is an effort to promote young artists and open new avenues for them.”

At the core of all the activities, the festival aims to promote an understanding of the city as a community space, encourage urban interaction and bonding. And the young artists from the Government College of Art are attempting to depict these thoughts in their works. Harmanpreet Singh is hearing-and-speech-impaired but his paintings speak volumes. It’s a blend of all the beautiful shades of City Beautiful. Through his gestures and written words, he explains, “Zakhir Hussain Rose Garden, Sukhna Lake, the most picturesque location Rock Garde, Mohali Cricket Stadium, Leisure Valley, these places are the inspiration of my painting. There is everything in the city to make for a peaceful life and I am showing just that.”

With humanism as his inspiration, Kulwinder Singh is busy creating a painting that reflects a thought-process opposite to religion. “With nature and urbanisation in the backdrop, a sign of Chandigarh, I am making a skeleton, symbolising humans, that is sitting in dharmachakra parivartan mudra. It’s a mudra of humanity, away from casteism and other differences.”

Anita Kaur is busy spreading vivid colours. Over them she will paint Armymen and boundary wires in black and white. “We live a colourful life in this city because soldiers live a black and white life at the borders protecting us. We must do everything to value what we have.” Among the students is Abishek Tiwari, who is making a painting that showcases development. His plan is to create and diffuse something on the same canvas for five days. And Vivek Sharma is creating Sangam.”

Adding to this delightful view is a burst of colours spread all over and across through an installation called Contemplation. Bright-coloured cotton clothes framed in different shapes and sizes are strewn around in a rhythm. It starts with a framed mirror that reflects the image of the heritage manhole. Created by Anil Sindhu and Kulpreet Singh, it symbolises everything you can imagine. “If you think of Chandigarh, people from all walks of life live here. The city was so intelligently designed that it has room for such diversity. The vision and open-mindedness of Le Corbusier is what we have tried to exhibit through this installation,” explains Anil.