Does your art beat for Mumbai

The makers of the ‘Love Mumbai’ installation at the ongoing Kala Ghoda Arts Fest have filed a petition for it to be made a permanent symbol of the city, on the lines of ‘I Love New York’

If there’s one thing that is trending at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival this year, it is the selfie. There are exactly 95 art installations at the street festival this year, and while they continue to be little monuments of inspiration for artists and art lovers, they are also doubling up as distinct backdrops and props for selfies and photos in general. And in a bid to cash in on this craze is the “Love Mumbai” installation that has been put up by the St+Art Foundation, Mumbai, in association with Asian Paints. Currently it has been installed at the Kala Ghoda parking lot opposite Rhythm House.

The makers have now launched an online campaign to make this installation a permanent structure in Mumbai. Those who are all for the move, just need click a photo with the structure in the backdrop and post it on their social media pages using hash tags #LoveMumbai #AsianPaints #StreetArt. This campaign is being strongly supported by two of the most successful online phenomena of recent times — Humans of Bombay and Terribly Tiny Tales. And to make themselves seen and heard by the powers that be, they have filed a petition on Change.org to get a step closer to making this a permanent symbol to represent the city of Mumbai. At the time of going to press, the petition had collected 217 signatures.

The typographic installation that echoes the famous Milton Glaser logo “I ‘heart’ NY” is seven-feet high, 20 feet in length and 1.5 feet in depth. “Love Mumbai” incorporates the ‘heart’ into the Devanagari script. Speaking of the creation, Hanif Kureshi, co-founder, St+Art, says, “Whenever we talk about symbols in the city we usually refer to the architecture. Our typographic installation is a way of planting a new idea to represent the city. Typographic sculpture as a concept has been there for a while. The most famous being Milton Glaser’s ‘I love New York’ and ‘I love Amsterdam’. We thought of introducing a similar idea with an Indian twist. And if this gets successful, we would like to make the same for other cities in vernacular languages. For instance, we will have one in Gujarati for Ahmedabad, a Kannada one for Bengaluru and so on. The point is to start a discussion on the possibility of having text-based structures symbolise cities.”

The simplicity of the installation seems to be a drawing factor for many, who don’t particularly fancy themselves as art connoisseurs. Sai Vidya, who has signed the petition and shared her photo on her social media, says, “Even though there are so many art pieces at the Kala Ghoda this time, this one is an instant attention grabber and that is because of its simplicity. The typography stands out and the best thing that I like about the installation is that it appeals to the layman — one doesn’t have to be a connoisseurs of art to appreciate this one. I don’t know if they will allow it to remain installed in what is otherwise a parking lot. But I think it should be made a permanent installation in the city.”

Even though its similarity to the New York and Amsterdam symbols is evident, some feel that this installation is in its own way very desi. Vahistha Bharucha who also signed on the petition says, “Even though the idea is a replica, and it has been done in many places, I think this installation is quite unique in its own way — it incorporates both the Indian as well as the Western elements which is exactly what Mumbai as a city stands for.”

The #LoveMumbai campaign has been steadily gathering steam on popular micro-fiction platform Terribly Tiny Tales, with stories themed on Mumbai being shared by contributors. Anuj Gosalia, co founder Terribly Tiny Tales, said, “Being the largest micro-fiction platform in India and based out of Mumbai, we were excited to be a part of the campaign and we thought it was a great way to celebrate the city. So our series of five tales is our ode to the city and its people.”