[Applause]
so I was born in from an amazing city in
which I spent most of my free time when
I was young
roaming around the streets of my city
everywhere there was art in every corner
a crossover of styles of course over of
Ages a crossover coming together in
forming my identity and forming my
identity and the citizens identity I was
very attracted by the power of the
artists these dear visionaries these
deer-like trade dreamers which basically
can really open up forms and shape forms
to actually give a shape to the viewer
and to the public spaces when I studied
art like I end up like in Maxim Museum
working there for three years now this
amazing architecture by za Hadid is like
a block of cement perhaps like was to
complete for me I felt that there was no
openness there was no actually sort of
dialogue and interaction with the urban
fabric with the people with the masses
Rome has been so unforgettable and for
many people all over the world because
of its openness masses were included in
every sort of architecture and art that
was created in my city so where was this
openness where was this Coliseum or the
forums for me was nowhere I felt kind of
lost in my own city so what I thought is
that giving back something to my city
itself and how creating new symbols like
creating new symbols that can actually
dialogue with the people and how through
art when I arrived in India actually it
was even more striking for me because
the streets are the most alive in the
world everything happens in the street
the boundary between the public and
private is very thin actually there is
none a lot of time at the same time
streets are really expressive of like
the creativity of India everything like
vendors barbers like sign painting food
is displayed in such an amazing manner
so everything was already there but
actually art contemporary art was not
there at all
and threes are also accepted the place
in which a lot of striking contrast
between the sectors of societies are
happening and taking place so streets
are also like actually the place in
which operating through art to actually
create collective memories to create
symbols to create dialogues first thing
we wanted to and sorry if I’d like also
India gave me like my four amazing
partners crazy people visionaries that
wanted to just like cross boundaries and
create like space for dialogues the
first boundary that we crossed was the
Delhi police at quarter I mean it’s
difficult to enter in that is that color
unless you are like in a very bad
situation what we wanted to do it was
creating like a contrast so Gandhi the
symbol of peace on the facade of Delhi
police at quarter along with that this
building is like 157 feet and stands
right in I do a very key location for
the city of Delhi so dull so impersonal
how you can connect with those urban
fabric and urban spaces which are
absolutely not welcoming once again so
let’s open the walls let’s break those
walls an image like this one actually
can’t connect with everyone and anyone
the autorickshaw knows perhaps even
better the barabara painting of the
Gandhiji instead of Delhi police
headquarter itself that’s the power of
images creating public spaces activating
collective memories and activating
dialogues no one ever questioned why a
Vodafone board is everywhere around us
but people definitely like open up their
eyes when something like this comes in
their cities this is another symbol of a
collective memory it’s in BA in Bandra
Bombay stands like in the reclamation
bridge very visible actually I forgot to
put like an image from far who’s that
guy like these guys like Dallas a falcon
now Bombay is what about Bollywood and
this is a forgotten hero is the first
Bollywood producer people start
questioning so why this person is here
and actually this is like when the
dialogue takes space on Instagram on
social media but
on the streets most recently that was
one of the work that we’ve done in
Churchgate station now the railways are
like the lifeline of India the railways
are like literally the symbol of
democracy and Gandhi chose actually the
train stations as like his own favorite
stage and this is like the moment in
which he gets down on a third-class
train we have space for democracy we
have space for dialogue and these images
are like just meant to for to remember
to all of us that this is what we can
have and this is what we should have
coming from like you know these very
symbolic images and they’re again
activate collective memories what we
start like thinking is like why don’t we
do more why we can’t activate in a
temporary manner public spaces which are
definitely not meant to host art for
people that definitely are not going to
museums
so the overall point was to activate a
crossover of people and spaces
reconnecting the cityscape with the
citizens this is one of the busiest spot
in Delhi which very few people know is
called icd inland container Depot mmm
around 3,000 trucks enter every day over
there it stands in two o’clock about and
what happened over there is that all our
goods are coming from there and right on
the opposite side there is a big
landfill so the end of those Goods now
this place was just like a nightmare it
was just like trucks and and no spaces
at all also for truckers to leave there
there are minutes of of actually waiting
for like loading and unloading the
containers the first operation was
actually like clean this parking lot
from the trucks what happened is that
the trucker started playing cricket
because it was the first time that they
didn’t have like the the bed of their
trucks has only space to actually play
cards or like just chat what happened
next is basically they started to see
all these containers which they are very
familiar with there is a much more than
we were moving around and standing in
very strange formation everything was
like a working progress this was also
the title of
the exhibition working progress is what
actually connects us to our cities
because our cities are a constant work
in progress so why art has to be in the
boundaries of the four walls
why can’t step outside and inform
everyone with a stupid imposition of
meanings a container stays a container
that’s not the matter and actually
that’s the reason why connects even more
with the community that we are working
with because they are the first one who
were helping us out actually to stock
the containers in this very particular
manner and the exhibition actually was a
working progress in itself because half
of it was done by the opening the other
half was happening under everyone’s eyes
sort of like I mean a small trick was to
give to everyone and anyone that was
entering in the exhibition the
work-in-progress jacket no matter who
you are you can be a tracker you can be
a very important like businessman or a
fashion designer whoever you were meant
to be part of the same experience
everyone was part of the same experience
and eventually what happened is that in
two o’clock about in a very mmm in a
place in which I mean it’s very
difficult also to arrive we had a queue
which was yeah very surprising
eventually people were coming because
public spaces are not malls public
spaces are those spaces and public
spaces are places that are informing you
with culture because culture is
important what happened right after is
that we thought okay let’s move on let’s
go even deeper in the understanding of a
city and the DNA of a city this is in
Bombay and it’s a sundog the first time
that I’ve been to Sassoon dock like a
crawl I dropped like a fish hat on my
head and I rat was like just dying in
front of me so really are not welcoming
place still the landfill also that was
nothing compared to the smell of the
fish by the way but still that place was
the heart of Bombay like Sassoon dock is
the oldest dog of town and this is the
visual Bombay like a city which I mean
is rising up with skyscrapers and like
thousands of people are coming every day
and this is still like a visual that
stands in Colaba which is the heart of
town and you can see like how busy it is
these are like the biggest whole fish
market of the city but actually founded
by Sussman that David Sassoon liked more
than 100 years ago and still standing
like no matter all the skyscrapers which
are coming up and pushing the
communities which are actually the
traditional settlers of Bombay the Kali
out of their own spaces a
transformations of the city which is
absolutely normal but at the same time
can’t get lost what we did was like kind
of like start working with the
communities and why because they are the
richer keeper of the traditions and so
these women eventually got framed by the
artist in a sort of like celebration of
those identities what happened right
after is that we kind of like started
working with the materials which are
local materials not just local
narratives because again a container can
be converse but a fishnet can become a
converse too so all the installations in
the exhibition have been made by the
people for the people eventually we had
like more than hundred people from the
Fisher for community was working with us
and the most different capacities
actually some of them also just
informing on how to use a fishnet
because we were absolutely not aware
about how to use it what happened right
after is that again like we had like
more than 25 artists coming over and
having like installations that were
speaking to the dock for the dock this
installation was made with 400 kilos of
plastic which got cleaned and weaved by
the women of the community and
eventually was like also a reminder that
we are all fish under water which gets
polluted so eventually all the
installations were actually speaking
about our condition and the condition of
our cities and the condition in
particular source and dock the very last
image is these like is it was the
entrance of the docks and what we’ve
done is that basically with this project
called inside out actually the creator
of inside out is a French artist called
they are very famous we
basically gathered together more than
300 people from the community different
tribes which aren’t like not absolutely
speaking with each other because are
busy that is like a caste system which
is very very strong along with that men
and women together again a very strange
thing for them they came we photograph
them we gather all their stories and
then eventually we paste them up like on
all the warehouses which are the
entrance of the exhibition why because
again what we do is like art for the
people and made by the people and what
happened was kind of interesting because
at the beginning when we started pasting
up like all those portraits like women
came to us and said like we are very
scared because my husband if he sees me
like close to a man he will beat me I
mean why I’m close to a man that was
also the generator of other dialogues we
brought a lot of people together wise
husbands banjaara tribe kali tribe all
together to speak about their identities
to understand that their identities can
be reformed and reshaped now can I
change the world I wish so I don’t know
very difficult to say but what it can
change is definitely can change
perception can inform about where are we
going can actually open imagination
imagination is the power that we have we
have to look beyond we have to cross
over and we have to break the walls
thank you
[Applause] you