~ History meets contemporary art in Hyderabad this November as national and local artistes come together to add life to and creatively regenerate the public spaces in the city
From November 1 to 12, several sites across the iconic Necklace Road and M S Makhta will come alive through murals, installations, talks, screenings and workshops.
The aim of the St+art festivals is to make art accessible to a wider audience by taking it out of the conventional gallery spaces and embedding it within the cities we live in - making art truly democratic and accessible to everyone.
The vision of this initiative is to create awareness and encourage appreciation towards diverse artform's among the masses and work towards making our public spaces more interactive while also reinvigorating older neglected parts of a city through interventions by some of the best local and international artists. Sharing a similar vision with local partners art@telangana and Krishnakriti Foundation, the aim of St+art HYD is to create iconig landmarks within the city of Hyderabad giving it the attributes of a true world capital - inclusive, edgy and progressive.
Mr. Amit Syngle, President-Sales, Marketing & Technology, Asian Paints Ltd.added, “Indian cities are known for their rich history and heritage. Through St+art festival, we all have a golden opportunity to reinvent public spaces in these cities. Asian Paints feels elated to support St+art Foundation and the national and international artists as they set out to paint landmark locations of Hyderabad in unique colors and concepts.”
Mr. B. V. Papa Rao, Managing Trustee, art@telangana and Advisor, Govt. of Telangana, said, “In the context of Telangana government policy to position Hyderabad a contemporary multicultural city, bringing street art festival to Hyderabad is a significant step in the direction.”
9 Indian & International urban and contemporary artists along with 10 artists from Telangana will come together to enrich the streets with their unique works and reclaim public spaces within the city of Hyderabad. The St+art HYD line-up features Artez (Serbia), Alber (Bordeaux, France), Nikola Mihajlovic (Serbia), Jean Luc Feugeas (France), Remed (France), Nilesh (Pune), Neelim Mahanta (Del), Daan Botlek (Netherlands), Daku (India), Dia Mehta Bhupal (Hyderabad) and 10 artists from Telangana whose names will be shared soon.
Arjun Bahl, Co-Founder and Festival Director of St+art Foundation said, “Hyderabad is a city with rich heritage and culture but over the years we hear more about its Technology and IT industry feats, with this festival we hope it will bore the seeds to more such initiative’s. Am estactic Asian Paints shares a similar vision along with our hosts art@telengana & Krishnakriti Foundation.”
The St+art festival will culminate with two unique projects:
“Artvertising” - A temporary advertising hoarding project led by artists Daku and Dia Mehta Bhupal will feature the transformation of a stretch of 15 hoardings. The objective is to create an art corridor by breaking the visual pollution of ads.
Giulia Ambrogi, Co-Founder and Curator of St+art India Foundation said, “The most exciting component of working in the urban art field is to conceptualize projects which belong to the nature and the structure of the city itself. Hyderabad will have projects which respond to its environment such as the regeneration of the makhta neighborhood, a key space of the citizens by being on the lake side or the advertising project which relies on the interaction with the massive visuals of the city of hoardings.”
The Typo Sculpture installation – Love HYD, which will be installed on Necklace Road with the ambition of making it a prominent landmark of Hyderabad in the years to come.
“St+Art HYD is first step towards taking urban art to smaller metro cities after Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. We welcome the government of Telangana for inviting us. We are hoping to make Hyderabad little colourful in next two weeks.” adds Hanif Kureshi, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of St+art India Foundation.
Akshat Nauriyal, Co-Founder and Content Director of St+art India Foundation, resonated the same enthusiasm while sharing, “Hyderabad is an interesting city for us to work in because it retains the old world heritage mixed with the moderninm of a global new age city. Through St+art HYD we aim to add more vibrant spaces within the city for people to experience.”
During the first weekend of the St+art festival, Novemeber 5 and 6, Art@telangana and Krishnakriti Foundation will organise the Telangana Kala Mela. It will be held at the People’s Plaza, Necklace Road, and will aim to bring art to the public and provide a conducive platform to the artists from the region. The Kala Mela will be inaugurated Shri K T Ramarao, Minister for Urban Development, Govt. of Telangana and will also be attended by Shri Azmeera Chandulal (Minister for Culture & Tourism), Shri K V Ramanachary (Advisor to Govt. of Telangana), Shri Bonthu Rammohan (Mayor, Hyderabad), Dr. B Janardhan Reddy (Commissioner, GHMC), Shri Jagdish Mittal (noted art connoisseur) and eminent artists like Shri K Laxma Goud, Shri Suryaprakash and Shri Thota Vaikuntham. The Art Mela will have more than 100 stalls with various artists displaying their work and working on the spot for 2 days.
Mr. Prshant Lahoti, Trustee Krishnakriti Foundation, added, “Getting art to the public has always been our goal. What better way than to get street art to Hyderabad. We are looking to make this initiative bigger in coming years.”
About St+art India Foundation
The St+Art India foundation is a non-profit organization that works on art projects in public spaces. The aim of the foundation is to make art accessible to a wider audience by taking it out of the conventional gallery space and embedding it within the cities we live in - making art truly democratic and for everyone. Across the past 3 years, the foundation has organized 4 St+art festivals in Delhi and Mumbai, creating iconic landmarks within these cities.
About Asian Paints
Since its foundation in 1942, Asian Paints has come a long way to become India’s largest and Asia’s third largest paint company, with a turnover of Rs. 127.15 billion. Asian Paints operates in 17 countries and has 23 paint manufacturing facilities in the world servicing consumers in over 65 countries. Asian Paints has always been a leader in the paint industry, pushing new concepts in India like Colour Ideas, Home Solutions, Colour Next, and Kids’ World.
About art@telangana
art@telangana, a non-profitable Trust based in Hyderabad, India is formed with an intention to promote the artists and art. It endeavours to bring about the significance of art and culture of the region by organizing art camps, exhibitions, publications and many such promotions. artattelangana.org is a true fine art destination, an exquisite treasure consisting of amazing blend of both, art works of well-known and upcoming artists. It exhibits and promotes works of artists belonging to various styles and age groups. Art@telangana is an exclusive platform comprising of renowned artists, art connoisseurs and art lovers, who all come together to celebrate fine art.
About Krishnakriti Foundation
Krishnakriti Foundation, was founded in the year 2003 with the support of The Kalakriti Art Gallery and The Lahoti Foundation, The Krishnakriti Foundations mission is to promote the cause of art and culture to Hyderabad, India and beyond. It conducts the Krishnakriti Annual Festival of Art and Culture which features fine-arts exhibition, seminars, panel discussions, workshops, artist interaction sessions, book launches and readings, plays, screenings and musical concerts. In association with the Embassy of France in India, it offers fellowship to study fine-arts in the art capital of the world - Paris, France. The Krishnakriti Foundation also offers scholarships to students of fine-arts to pursue higher education in India and abroad.