Presentation at MICA

Abhay Mangaldas was invited to make a presentation at MICA, Mudra Institute of Communications, on the heritage of Ahmedabad. Since our research was relevant to that, I was given the opportunity to present some of it at the institute.

Students at MICA

Ahmedabad is a World Heritage City and the most obvious reason as to why is that it was a walled city with its numerous pols and beautiful architecture. But an important reason is the living heritage here. Ahmedabad houses craftspersons from all over India who settled in the old city of Ahmedabad decades ago. Even the most basic markets like stories and become exciting places to explore. So, I chose to present the Kalaiwala and Rogan printing as they were the perfect examples of the living heritage in Ahmedabad.

After the presentation, there was a very interesting discussion on heritage and especially the dying crafts in India. I concluded that it is very important to responsibly help the artisans to grow without creating a hierarchy. It is important to work along with them. An interesting fact that came was that it is necessary to make heritage “cool”, get more people to appreciate the beauty of handmade to one of the students, I came to know about Wabi Sabi. In traditional Japanese aesthetics, it is a world view centered on the acceptance of imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. I learned a lot from this experience.