By bringing art to Mumbai airport—and no ordinary art at that—GVK has made it inclusive and less intimidating, says the curator Rajeev Sethi
Over time, the new airport terminal in Mumbai will witness millions of journeys. But there will always be one that precedes them all—through a canvas that captures the creative output of a hundred artists and artisans. Disparate murals, paintings, pottery and sculptures are unleashed without the restraint of frames and the divisive hierarchy of high art and low art, but united by an aesthetic that is unabashedly India. Within the confines of Terminal-2, dung art meets digital art and GR Iranna crosses path with Gulammohammed Sheikh.
The very construct of an airport makes it easily susceptible to becoming a wasteland, a no-man’s land that engenders no feeling of ownership or belonging, where people are reduced to zombie cattle-like movement. Where time elapsed is measured in steps taken from entry to exit. Art in the arrivals corridors destroys this apathy through movement. The section, says Sethi, is determined by the morphology of the building itself where travellators get very close to the wall. In a documentary on the making of ‘Jaya He’, he says: “I was attracted by the kinetics of people moving so close to the wall, and wondering if the wall could move, adding a layer to the narrative.” Screens that look like aircraft windows allow viewers to see themselves, and kinetic elements serve to amplify the sense of movement. Panels use illusions so that images appear and disappear as you move past them.
This is not ornamental art. “There is a deep commitment to a narrative, a concept that goes beyond being just beautiful. Art has to jostle the viewer’s sensibilities,” says Sethi.
(This story appears in the March-April 2014 issue of ForbesLife India. To visit our Archives, click here.)