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Patna Is Painting Walls For Good via ‘Walk For Bihar’

Nabhaneel Tiwary
Art, Bihar

Kunal Singh’s dream of the Sleeping Buddha. His mural represents the historical Buddha during his last illness, about to enter the Mahaparinirvana.The peaceful and soothing Buddha sleeps in between the busy bustling city of Patna.

Patna being one of the oldest cities of the east has always witnessed the art and innovations in its land. In the 18th century, this city gave birth to Patna Qalaam Paintings, which was world’s only painting school that use to paint the lifestyle of commoners.

Two centuries later, Patna has started painting again, this time the canvas is the wall, and the idea is to bring back the prestige which we lost due to our negligence and the stereotypical hoax made by rest of the nation.

Vonitya Amit mural in Anishabad. The vibrant colors and relateable elements of the mural attracts a number of passerby commuting through that road.

In last few months, walking around the streets or scrolling down your Facebook timeline, you must have noticed the beautiful graffiti in the city, what is it? Where is it coming from? Patnabeats will answer these questions through this article and will let you –Walk for Bihar– to understand the concept and the people behind the creativity.

Walk For Bihar, Brain Child of filmmaker Dr Manish Tiwary who has earlier worked for the United Nations in Rome, and Artist Mr Abhishek Kumar Singh who has recently curated few public art and sculpture projects in Maharashtra and Haryana, Walk For Bihar is an initiative to promote and invite large-scale public participation using one or several Art forms in service of Bihar’s economic and cultural development.

Walk For Bihar inaugurated on October 28th, 2016 by the Arts and Culture Minister, Shivchandra Ram at NIFT, Patna campus aims to bring Patna on the Art Map of important world cities, with the help of innovative and radical Street Art and Video Installations.

What else to be said for the mural by Ruchin Soni! His mural added a moment of pause in the life of the People in Transit through the Patna Junction Station.

The first Indian Railway Station to get a total makeover from Red to a mural that speaks a 1000 words. Nilesh painted the Danapur Railway Station along with Co-artists Mamta Keshri,Soma Anand, Satya Sarth.Badshah Khan with the song of the history of Khagol, The Aryabhata. The man who invented ZERO, paved the digital ground of today and the future is lost somewhere. The wall stands tall in remembrance of Khagol’s native hero, Aryabhata

The people associated with the initiative are bunch of creative folks who have decided to bring the creative innovation culture to Bihar, their organizing team includes Artist Pramod Prakash, who has represented India in many international Art workshops, and also served as a visiting lecturer in Patna Art and Craft College, Bihar, Visual Artist Sumit Das, who is Director of Photography for many award-winning films, and has been associated with public art and sculpture projects in Maharashtra and Haryana, Event Manager Priyanka Singh, she has worked for several grand events like Filmfare Awards, Golden Petals Award, Pune International Film Festival and Mumbai Marathon and Mr Ananjay Bhushan, who runs an Art Gallery “Gallery Ananya”, and has organized, co-curated and coordinated many International Art Projects

According to the organisers, more than a dozen national and international artists have already committed to the festival. In the first batch Artist Artez from the Republic of Serbia, Kunal Singh of Mumbai, Nilesh Kharade of Pune, Bhavesh Patel of Vadodara will paint the walls of the city with creative thoughts.

Blaise Joseph’s artwork on the interaction between nature and development. It’s two parallel story of people on the road and outside it. The artwork has been done on Road Construction Department’s outpost near Hartali More on the Daroga Rai Path

While in second batch artists for video installation are Mr Baiju Kurup of Trivandrum, murals by Kunal Singh of Mumbai, Vonitya Amit of Jamshedpur.

The organising team took almost two years for the massive planning, overcoming the challenges and getting the entire artists on board.

Chandra Shekhar on his mural on RCD Outpost on Daroga Rai Path. His mural is the artistic representation of his photograph of a flower with an insect.

If done right this will be a great gift for the city, however being born and raised in the city where academic coaching center has arisen like a plague, and where at schools and in our houses innovations and creativity is crunched by the roller of Engineering, law and Medical entrance exams, it will be interesting to see how much Patnaites will be respectful towards the gift of these artists from the nation and beyond. After all creative art will make the city beautiful till you keep it safe!

Photo Credits : Sumit Das and Swati Sharma.

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Quote of the day: “One eye sees, the other feels.” 
― Paul Klee

 

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