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INTERNATIONAL. We bring you the latest in a series in association with The Design Solution dedicated to the important, but often misunderstood, concept of Sense of Place, with a focus this time on Mumbai. The series is also running in every issue of The Moodie e-Zine. GVK has created something very special with its art museum at Chhatrapati Shivaji International, and here GVK Vice Chairman Sanjay Reddy and members of his senior team explain how the project moved from vision to reality. By Colleen Morgan.
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.”
– T. E. Lawrence
Who would have thought, not too many years ago, that India would be home to one of the world’s most amazing airports?
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Drawing an audience: Terminal 2 can now claim to be the most visited museum in the world |
Chhatrapati Shivaji International (CSIA) is the primary international airport serving the Mumbai Metropolitan area. With its new T2, opened in 2014, it is classed as one of the most modern and technically advanced airports in the world. Not only that, but it is home to one of the world’s largest art museums.
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“I always had a burning desire to showcase something which is very close to my heart – the beauty of Indian art and design“ |
Sanjay Reddy Vice Chairman GVK |
In February 2006, Mumbai International Airport Limited, a consortium of GVK Industries Ltd, Airports Company South Africa and Bidvest, was appointed to carry out the modernisation and expansion of Chhatrapati Shivaji Mumbai Airport. GVK Vice Chairman Sanjay Reddy was determined to bring art into its development.
“I always had a burning desire to showcase something which is very close to my heart – the beauty of Indian art and design,” he says. “With GVK and Chhatrapati Shivaji International I had the opportunity to realise this dream. It was, however, quite a struggle; there was no benchmark to follow anywhere in the world.”
What Reddy did have, however, was a guaranteed audience. He compared the nine million annual visitors to the Louvre in Paris with the new terminal’s expected annual footfall of 40 million and knew he was on to something. An idea to develop an art wall took shape. “Just think of the impact it will have,” he said at the outset.
Reddy’s dream prompted an art project that has propelled Mumbai into the A-list of National Geographic’s “˜Smart Cities’ across the world; Terminal 2 can now claim to be the most visited museum in the world and, possibly, the world’s largest public art exposition.
The new Jaya He (which means Glory to Thee) GVK Art Museum is a unique initiative celebrating the diversity of Indian art, defining very clearly the meaning of Sense of Place. It is, however, by no means an ordinary art exhibition. Jaya He runs over 3.2km of wall space spanning the terminal’s four levels at a height of 60ft, from the skylight to the floor. It offers an extraordinary 2,000-plus pieces of art, artifacts and crafts from every region and every corner of India. Within the confines of T2, dung art meets digital art and a vast quilt – the work of women from the slums on the periphery of the airport – gets the same treatment as works from some of the country’s masters.
In short, it is astonishing, breathtaking and awesome.
At the beginning of the project Reddy met with renowned Indian scenographer (and now the museum’s curator) Rajeev Sethi and explained his deceptively simple idea for art in the airport. He talked about a collection supported by the architectural framework of the terminal. At that stage Reddy wanted Sethi to create and curate a museum for a terminal that had yet to be constructed.
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India Elemental works are based on the Indian science of wellbeing. The antique stonespouts in “˜Pipes’ by Rajiv Sethi, Shekar Kapur, B R Pandit, Priya Sundervalli and Vipul Kumar are found in Domestic Departures, Level 3 |
Sethi recalls: “He came to me and said, “˜Let’s do something with the airport. Let’s make people feel that it is not Shanghai, that it’s not Dubai, that it is entirely India’.
“When Sanjay first discussed the idea with me, he said, “˜Rajeev, I don’t really care if people miss their flights as long as they are enjoying themselves’. I said this man is utterly crazy, and the kind of man I’d really like to work with. I told him, “˜I’m in.'”
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Indian scenographer and now museum curator Rajeev Sethi |
The hunt for treasures spanned more than two years and involved journeys to all parts of India. The GVK team scooped up huge wooden totems from tribal Nagaland in the north-east, painted masks from a store in Kerala, entire carved façades of traders’ homes in coastal Gujarat, and much more. More than 100 restorers were employed to mend, conserve and prepare each piece for its location.
“By bringing art to Mumbai Airport – and no ordinary art at that – GVK has made it inclusive and less intimidating,” Sethi says.
India, he explains, marks and celebrates every rite of passage, particularly in travel. “Our ambition was to bring this sensibility to the airport, infusing meaning into the huge spatial volumes of T2 Mumbai.”
Jaya He was conceived as an initiation into the immediate environment and the larger context of the airport, the city of Mumbai and of India as a whole. Reflecting the many-layered story that is India, the collection evolved and brought together designers, artists, artisans, architects, art historians, anthropologists, conservators and technicians to create something that leaves visitors with no doubt that they are in India.
In Arrivals commissioned artworks in “˜Layered Narratives’ focus on Mumbai and life in urban India, telling its tale as disembarking passengers move through the terminal. Many works use interactive technologies, with more than 20 known contemporary Indian artists represented.
Vivan Sundaram has created a city out of garbage in “˜Trash, Fash, Bash’; Baiju Parthan’s “˜Hope’ is a journey through Mumbai’s roads; Gulammohammed Sheikh’s “˜Journey Across Time’ uses maps in a mobile mural to evoke a sense of time elapsed and distance covered and “˜City Outgrows its Gates’ by Gigi Scaria is a multimedia installation, a wall with six gates made from aluminium fabricated sheets.
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Awesome pillars: “˜Heptad the 7th’ from Sharmila Samant, part of India Global, greets passengers through International Arrivals |
The bulk of the art work however is in the Departures zone. “˜Thresholds of India’ houses 70 installations divided into six themes: India Elemental, India Seamless, India Greets, India’s Silent Sentinels, India Moves and India Global. Like a kaleidoscope, a passenger gets a different view at each boarding gate.
India Elemental is based on the Indian science of wellbeing and includes an installation of antique stone spouts to represent water, bronze and stone lamps to represent fire and canopies to represent locomotives. India Global represents an India in the making, where incomplete constructions coexist with new-age architecture while India Seamless presents a range of works by contemporary artists and artisans from across the country.
India Moves focuses on spirituality with antique boats, bullock carts, flying machines and palanquins and houses, works by leading Indian artists.
Jaya He works include the Mumbai Google Map by multimedia artist Akshay Rajpurkar who used recycled materials including computer circuit boards, resisters and condensers. Another artwork is made of bottle caps.
The transformation of CSIA has been described as “unlike any other airport development project”. So is it living up to expectations?
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“˜Collective Nouns’ from Manjunath Kamath form part of the Layered Narrative focusing on Mumbai and life in urban India, on International Arrivals Level 2 |
GVK President Project Development Karthi Gajendran says it emphatically is doing so. “When we took over the airport in 2006 and announced that we would transform Mumbai International Airport into one of the best airports in the world many thought it was a mission impossible and just a pipe dream,” he says.
“It was not surprising because we just had 1,400 acres of operational area, many local environmental issues, slums and encroachments, dilapidated buildings, no land to build new runways and an airfield with cross runways which required complete rebuilding. This meant that we had to practically “˜manufacture’ land through demolition and optimisation and then build back better.
“We unveiled an innovative master plan in 2007, and were able to rally all our stakeholders with one unifying force, “˜One Team, One Dream’. Today, we not only have an award winning integrated Terminal 2, but also one of the most efficient airfield operations when benchmarked with our global peers.”
Gajendran joined GVK in 2010 when work on the new T2 terminal was already underway. With a background in accounting and economics he quickly found himself immersed not just in construction and planning but in the work of art and artists.
“The unenviable task of collecting art, craft works and antiquities from all corners of India was undertaken by Sanjay Reddy and his wife Aparna Reddy, who are both passionate patrons of India art and craft, and the Jaya He New Museum team, along with Rajeev Sethi. My challenge was to manage the integration and bonding of this hugely creative talent comprising artists and craft persons with the hardcore engineering and construction teams. I can say that this was certainty not taught in my accountancy and economics classes!”
Gajendran, however, met the challenge and fully appreciates what the airport has become.
“The artworks were created as a reflection of the living tradition of Indian culture and tradition, which means that the works had to address the past and present, the rural and urban and everything in between,” he says.
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Thresholds of India: A spectacular welcome at Mumbai T2 |
“Jaya He GVK New Museum has over 2,000 objects of art that include paintings, sculptures, crafts, artifacts and antiquities, and all have translated into some of the most beautiful works of art that defy conventional nomenclature.”
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GVK President Project Development Karthi Gajendran sums up the investment in the art museum in one word – “priceless” |
Gajendran mentions just a few that, at times, stop travellers in their tracks. The Celestial Realm in the International Departures Lounge is one.
“This is an art installation that has Kerala Mural paintings that depict the gods and goddesses interspersed with exquisite doors, pillars and roofs from Kerala. The Winged Chime in the Domestic Departures Lounge is perhaps one of the largest tuned wind chimes, playing at specific time intervals. Consider the Warli Painting, in the International Arrivals corridor, where tribal artists have adapted their work on to a tri-vision board that reflects three stories – idyllic village life, city life and the airport itself.”
Each artwork or artifact has its own story and manages to claim its own audience. The New Museum has developed into a vital part of the airport and, Gajendran believes, of the Indian nation.
“It is a living narrative of the vast expanse of art and culture of the nation. One of the core ideas in developing an art museum in the terminal was to revive and build the connection between people and art, to bring back the joy of looking at a work of art and taking away a beautiful memory.”
He feels the investment is “priceless”, adding that the art wall “serves a purpose that succeeds beyond beautification and aims to revive a sense of joy and pride in the rich cultural heritage of India that continues to live today.
“An airport is not merely a transitory space but a space endowed with the power of change.”
Reactions to Jaya He have been positive, says Gajendran. “The general feeling is of awe and wonderment for the first-time visitor, but our repeat passengers look forward to spending time with the artworks and find something new each time they engage with it.”
And the commercial benefits for the airport?
“This is an art museum and the benefits are intangible but we have managed to touch scores of people and hope to keep on reaching more people,” Gajendran explains. “We are committed not only to our audience but also to the many hundreds of artists who have participated in making this a grand success.
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Moving forward: The museum will change over time to meet the demands of the fast moving travelling public |
“So the museum has been extremely beneficial to bring in that moment of respite, the element of surprise and touch people’s lives by creating an opportunity to share the beauty of art.”
Original works of art are not for sale but Terminal 2 has a museum store where travellers can purchase not only reproductions of the artworks but also view and buy original craft pieces, books on Indian art, unusual folk music and souvenirs of India.
Gajendran continues: “We also have a dedicated exhibition space within the terminal where we showcase and exhibit works. For example our first exhibition was of hand painted textiles from Gujarat; the artist not only exhibited wall hangings but he developed hand painted sarees, stoles, cushion covers and boxes. The exhibition was enhanced by well researched material on the artist and the craft. The pieces were also on sale and overall it was a great success.”
What are the next steps in developing the museum and in communicating its benefits? “It has been a year since we opened about 50% of the entire museum. We will be opening the balance this year so we have come a long way in making tangible changes in the country,” Gajendran says. “It is our vision to create a bridge between the local artist and the audiences; the museum is our first effort, the museum store is the second such endeavour and there are many more in the pipeline.
“To elaborate on the philosophy of the store and the exhibition space, these are spaces that promote the works of the artists by providing them with a meaningful and dedicated platform. Also the efforts of our team have been to evolve the crafts by gradually guiding the artisans to new products that they can adapt their craft to and also giving them meaningful feedback from the customers.”
GVK is strengthening the connection between viewers and artists through guided tours, mobile apps and touchscreen information kiosks. Its team is also working to transform the Jaya He website into a portal where viewers can contact artists and artisans.
“The app for the museum is in the pipeline and we believe that for a successful engagement of the audience, especially the youth, technology interface is integral,” Gajendran adds.
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Reaching out: The exhibition spaces promote the works of artists by providing them with a “meaningful and dedicated” platform at Mumbai T2 |
The New Museum is an “ongoing project” for GVK, a project in a busy international terminal which must continually meet the demands of the fast moving travelling public.
“The Mumbai airport is irrevocably a terminal with a museum, the two cannot be separated,” says Gajendran.
“We understand that people are not oriented or inclined to engage with art, but the art in our museum is inviting and we are making efforts to convey this message not only within the terminal but through online media too. For instance we are building a page on our website that will clearly direct the traveller to the areas of the museum that would be accessible depending on whether they are an arriving or departing passenger on the domestic or international sector. Then there is the guided walk-through app that will be developed.
“Apart from our efforts within the terminal we also plan to engage people outside the terminal, in the city or the country through initiatives like seminars and discussions on art in partnership with museums in the city,” Gajendran concludes.
GVK and its development team have turned Chhatrapati Shivaji International into a world-class airport and Jaya He has moved from dream to reality. As the GVK team says: “This was not just like any other project. It was a labour of love.”
