Coimbatore

/

Art Districts

Ukkadam Art District

Ukkadam, Coimbatore

2020

‘Ukkadam’ in Coimbatore is a Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board colony which today is home to people rehabilitated from slum areas across the city. The colony’s pedestrian-friendly architecture and its unique context allowed us to set the base for the country’s sixth open-air, public art district starting on 4 of its facades. Five artists - four national and one international, worked over 20 days in the month of March 2020 to create foundational pieces for this street art gallery.

Artworks in the process of completion

Architecturally, Ukkadam is made up of multi-storied apartments, all of which bear wide expansive facades, while its streets are pedestrian-friendly and conducive of on-foot commuting. Additionally, the area’s bustling micro economy - made up of a variety of markets hosted on different days and dedicated to selling different kinds of wares, is sustained by a huge footfall of residents from all over the city. A combination of these factors allowed us to zero in on the locality as the site for the nation’s sixth art district.

Amitabh Reveals Ukkadam Art Dist St Art Kovai 2020 Jeswin Rebello
'Trees of Where’ by Amitabh Kumar: Migratory birds are an integral part of the ecosystem of Coimbatore lakes and fly around the world inhabiting temporary shelters. In a site that becomes home to a similar community of dwellers, a collective that has been living in temporary shelters and makeshift spaces, this idea of home becomes permanent. Amitabh Kumar’s ‘Trees of Where’ references both the ecological and sociological composition of Coimbatore’s Ukkadam and represents it as a mural. His ‘migratory bird - trees’ represent the moment a community has found its home, and home is where you can lay your roots.

Building on the foundational concept of an ‘art district’ - premised on an open-air public art gallery model, the Ukkadam Art District allowed artists to interpret Kovai’s distinct characteristics individually and represent them visually. Everything from Kovai’s birds to its cinema, and its traditions to the intimate habits of the inhabitants of Ukkadam found visual articulation in the artists’ pieces.

The curation (of both artists as well as artworks) sought to establish a different perception of neighborhood, making it a space for imagination and discursive dialogues to bloom.

EXPLORE OTHER DISTRICTS:

Borondo

Lodhi Art District

As part of St+art Delhi 2016, the Foundation worked in close collaboration with CPWD to re-invigorate the walls between Khanna Market and Meherchand Market, and convert Lodhi Colony into India’s first Public Art District. The aim of the project was to work closely with government bodies and the community of Lodhi Colony to create art works in public spaces. By the end of the project in 2016, 23 murals were added to the area. Today, with 56+ artworks, the colony is widely recognized as the first open-air art district of the country and the reception received by it in terms of footfall, the number of tours and walks being organised, photo and video shoots taking place, and an increased sense of community pride amongst its inhabitants encourages us to build on the district every year.

Maqtha Art District

Located next to the Hussain Sagar lake - one of Hyderabad’s prime locations, the Maqtha neighbourhood provided us with the ideal setting to initiate work on the vision of St+art Hyderabad 2016 - to make the city’s public spaces more interactive. 11 artworks were created in the neighbourhood by national and international artists over a month. Upon completion of artworks, the neighbourhood was launched as India’s third, open-for-all, public art district. More artworks were added to the area in the subsequent editions of the festival.

Mahim (E) Art District

In October 2017, the region of Mahim (E) in Mumbai became the launchpad for India’s third open-air, public art district. Encompassing the areas of Dharavi, Matunga Labour Camp and Shahu Nagar - together forming Mahim (E), the art district saw the creation of artworks by national and international artists who used local narratives to inspire their pieces. Artworks in the region were conceptualised and executed with the objective of encouraging the city’s citizens - who generally might not venture into Shahu Nagar and Mahim (E) - to both discover its cultural milieu and get a chance to engage with its people.

Panjim Art District

India’s fourth public art district - the Panjim Art District, was founded in 2017, as part of St+art Goa 2017. Over the years, a diverse set of artists has used distinct stylistic approaches to create pieces inspired by their respective interpretations of the city. Spread across key buildings of the town-centre, today the Panjim Art District has a total of 14 murals each of which is in a dialogue with the unique culture and ethos of Goa in its own way.

Antonio WIP Kannagi Art Dist St Art Chennai 2020 Pranav Gohil 12

Kannagi Art District

Located off the Old Mahabalipuram Road in Chennai, Kannagi Nagar is one of the biggest resettlement sites in India. Made up of multi-storied apartments, it houses a population of 80,000 people living in 24000+ households with residents including people rehabilitated from three of the city’s river beds, slums across the city, and people affected by the devastation of the 2004 Chennai tsunami. In February 2020, closely working with the Greater Chennai Corporation and the Chennai Smart City Limited program, we made it the site for India’s fifth public art district, working with 15 artists whose pieces focused centrally on the themes of migration, displacement and movement.

CITIES

FOUNDATION

FOUNDATION