The live art of over population

The most interesting art you can see in any city in India is its population I think. We are so artistic when it comes to creating more and more of us in huge numbers, aren’t we? In spite of being the seventh largest in area, we are number two when it comes to population. As you would expect most tourist places are crowded. You can see the locals in huge numbers. It is impossible to click a picture of a monument or a piece of art that you like, without a person photobombing. No wonder people are taking up photography a lot more as they are paid well to wait for a long time to get a picture without a human being.(Getting a scenic picture without a humanoid is in itself a big deal – using classic angles comes secondary)

The queue outside 

Art work

Another one

The live art of over population

The Kala Ghoda Art Festival 2016 in Mumbai was no different. There was beautiful art displayed, but the only thing you could see was people. I couldn’t even take a snap of any artwork properly. I manoeuvred my way quickly through the Rampart Row and asked the girl at the help desk to guide me towards the workshop section. I was taking time to getting used to finding the venues in the crowd, so I managed to get into a films screening hall. They screened six short films from the recently concluded Rome International Film Festival, namely – Ahlem (dream), Child k, Dimmi Cossa Senti (tell me what you feel), Due Piedi Sinistri, Gas station and Happy Birthday. I liked all of them though I missed the beginning of Ahlem. I simply loved a shot from Child K- a letter going from a person's hand into a post box, in the bag and to the postmaster’s office on the table– the entire sequence done in a single shot. I visited the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly Price of Wales museum). I attended discussions on ‘The city as a muse’ and ‘The scenes we made’ – theatre.

Loved this one with the oxygen masks hanging off trees

If I could twist the slogans, here's how I would do it: (I loved the original version, just trying to make another very important point through this art... that's what art does, right? )

Less POPULATION is the best solution

ONLY ONE CHILD, hence more air

What will we do if due to over population the oxygen gets over even though the poor trees try to give as much as possible? We are amazing - we wont think that there are only these many oxygen masks and hence only these many people should be there. We Indians make space- there is always a little room, isn't it? We can squeeze in more, cant we?  So we will get more oxygen masks; tie more and more of those to every branch, till the tree cant bear the weight of tiny and weightless but so many oxygen masks, though it will keep supplying oxygen till its last breath. But... one day, there will be no oxygen left! Even the trees cant help us then. 

The next day I reached the venue at nine thirty as I wanted to attend a Storytelling workshop by Emily Hennessey, who gave nice tips on storytelling. She made us do some activities as well. Check out her profile: https://www.facebook.com/Emily-Hennessey-Storyteller-405363836291240/?hc_location=ufi I wasn’t registered as I had no idea I needed to, but I got a chance to attend this workshop as some people who had registered didn’t turn up.

Thereafter I went to a wine tasting by Elixiir Benedictine, a new winery near Nashik. I had taken up a wine tasting online course from https://www.edx.org/ Though I have been to one wine tasting earlier, this one was special as it was absolutely free! :P :) So we smelt, swirled and sipped the wine and wine coolers. Elixiir Benedictine has really nice wine coolers with nice colours – black currant, Jamaican fruit and berry. We started off with dry wines with high tannin and finished with sparkling dessert wines.

I attended some more workshops – ‘Branding India’, ‘MagEzine’(online and print magazines, love the title) and ‘New York, New York’ (about the confluence of cultures) -a foreigner raised her hand to ask a question in the middle of the discussion, even though everyone knew that the questions are supposed to be asked in the end. Was she, the bright and smart lady, from New York perhaps? :P Phew, where do they get this phony confidence from? Why don’t they get some sense from the same place that this mighty confidence comes from?

Interaction on MagEzine

All in all, I enjoyed Kala Ghoda in spite of the crowd; as I love such festivals. Check out the website to know about the fest in detail: http://www.kalaghodaassociation.com/  I would only say please control the population ya! And yes, amazing how people love black horses in spite of their colour and they are associated with artistic beauty, but the same doesn’t apply to humans!