Guwahati Bamboo Walkway
Guwahati Bamboo Walkway
Guwahati Bamboo Walkway ©2012 Indrani Baruah, Emilio Fantin, Paolo Rosso, William West, Microclima. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written consent of the authors and the publisher. This book is printed by Maretti Editore, August 2012. This edition is limited to five hundred copies. Layout and graphics made by glueglue. Cover image: North Guwahati ©2012 Microclima
Maretti Editore © www.marettieditore.com All rights reserved. No reproduction and mechanically or electronically transmission of the present book is allowed in any parts, except with the permission of the editor’s copyright. Printing closed on August 2012 ISBN 978-88-89477-86-1
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Guwahati Bamboo Walkway
A collaborative project between Microclima and Periferry Released on the occasion of the show â&#x20AC;&#x153;Guwahati Bamboo Walkwayâ&#x20AC;? as part of <A Better World>, studio427 Collateral Event at the 13. International Architecture Exhibition_ La Biennale di Venezia
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Who is Microclima and What is Periferry ?
The Guwahati bamboo walkway is the first collaborative project between Periferry and Microclima. This collaboration particularly focuses on the exchange of artists and researchers, both from Venice and Guwahati. The objective is to create a network of public spaces for cultural exchanges/collaborations that engage with and draw on the knowledge base of the communities. Microclima is an ongoing curatorial project started at the beginning of 2011 by Paolo Rosso within the Greenhouse of the Biennale Gardens that are located in the Castello district of Venice. The Greenhouse was built in 1894 to preserve during the winter, the exotic plants used for decorating the International Exhibitions of Art. Albeit subject to a set of conditions that are synonymous to a limited space, Microclima, in collaboration with artists and researchers offers a wide-ranging artistic program, extending from themes that deal with the tensions between man and nature to the significance of aggregational sites in the urban spaces. Being non-institutional, the
public space is conceived as non-hierarchical and open to debate. The work is not restricted to only visual art, but includes all forms of art practice and research, where the subsequent diversities hope to trigger a dialogue and/or exchange of ideas and processes between the practitioners and the local community; all of whom represent integral elements of the fundamental ideas and approaches of Microclima. Periferry is a project initiated by Desire Machine Collective (DMC) in the year 2007. The founding members of DMC are Sonal Jain and Mriganka Madhukaillya. Located on a ferry barge on the river Brahmaputra, the aims of Periferry are to create a nomadic space and laboratory for people involved in cross-disciplinary art practices. The project focuses on the creation of a network for negotiating the challenge of contemporary cultural production. Providing a space for public and community arts, where the experimentation through new media allows the empowerment of the local community to reclaim the public space,
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while at the same time connecting with the Global. It is a trans-local initiative that looks at a critical use of technology, collaborative experiments with local communities in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner. It works as a laboratory for people engaged in cross-disciplinary practice. Periferry is located on a ferry on river Brahmaputra docked in Guwahati. As with many other waterways throughout the world, the Brahmaputra was historically an enormously important trading and communication route with economic and trade links with the UK, a legacy of British colonial interests.This has now largely been superseded by improved road transport, and the remnants of a former river economy are left idling. Historically at the centre of many tensions, disputes and conflicts, rivers may well become flashpoints for future conflicts. The project aims to broaden the understanding of rivers from local and national interests to encompass a wider, intercultural recognition.
Thus, Microclima and Periferry have a shared interest in the creation of a network of spaces for negotiating the challenge of contemporary cultural production in the context of local-global negotiations. They both aim to promote experimentation in art, ecology, technology, media and science and to create a public space and public domain, physical as well as virtual for critical reflections. They both believe that research crosses boundaries between art, environmental science, architecture, urban design and cultural thinking, connecting the empirical and analytical with the selfreflective and critical tendencies of contemporary art. Periferry also explores the pertinent relationship that the river and the ferry have with energy, food and living. It is a space for reclaiming a public dialogue on the topic. “In collaboration with Microclima, Periferry invites people engaged in inter-disciplinary practices from outside the region to engage with issues specific to the local community and the project Periferry. It initiates a local-
global dialogue and provides a space both in literal and metaphorical ways, to counter both hegemonic art discourses and grand narratives of history. In doing so alternate art practices and ‘micro histories’ can be explored and the very concept of centreperiphery dichotomy is challenged and subverted.”
Guwahati Bamboo Walkway
The Guwahati Bamboo Walkway project was initially started after a visit in November 2011 to the North East Indian region of Assam, and in particular, the city of Guwahati by Paolo Rosso of Microclima and sculptor William West. The trip was intended primarily to gain a better understanding of the region for future collaborations between Periferry and Microclima. During this period the possibilities of employing the working techniques integral to Microclima, were considered. Benefiting from acknowledged cultural differences, an all inclusive, non-hierarchical approach to production, in an alien context, would not only preserve a desired uncertainty to a process, but would allow it to gain significant importance. Though technically not the capital of Assam, Guwahati is the largest metropolitan area, and is considered the gateway to the North East. The city itself is situated on the Southern bank of the Brahmaputra river, one of the major rivers of Asia as it crosses borders with Tibet, China and Bangla-
desh, thus making Guwahati an important commercial and educational centre of the North East, as well as one of the fastest growing areas in India. And although, or because the region is comprised of large ethnic and religious diversities, the city has seen its fair share of acts of terrorism by insurgents in recent years. After a period spent in Baruah Souk, a village situated on the opposite bank of the Brahmaputra river from Guwahati, we initiated a series of meetings with the people of the village and surrounding rural areas of what is known as North Guwahati. Unlike the metropolitan structure of Guwahati, North Guwahati is mainly composed of small villages where the social structures are not dissimilar to that of a tribal hierarchy, with a varied population ranging from fishermen and brick-makers, to artisans involved in the weaving of textiles and cultivation of water lilies, and where many people live sharing space and assets. Although many parts of the landscape and
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villages of the area are not as yet contaminated by the city, and the roads have little traffic, constant industrialisation further north and uncontrolled development is threatening to change this, bringing with it, problems relating to health and overcrowding, as in much of the rest of India. Another challenge to the people and their priorities in the riverside communities is the constant flux of commuters passing through the villages. Commuters make their way to and from the ferry terminals that line the shore, as the ferries are the only means to cross to Guwahati city, apart from the Saraighat bridge some 10 kilometres away. This creates frustrations and tensions between Guwahati citizens and the inhabitants of North Guwahati, whom are considered humble people and not assimilated to the metropolitan standard. Making note of the differences, be it cultural, economical or environmental we started to consider the possibilities of a collaboration with the inhabitants of Baruah Souk to create a form of cultural exchange, not
only between us and the inhabitants but also between the inhabitants of the village and their neighbours on the other side of the river. Locating a hill above Mani-Karneswar Devalay, not far from an important archaeological site with different inscriptions dating from the Middle Ages, and a small temple from the 11th century, where traces remain of ancient bridge joints and carvings along the cliffs and large rocks below; one is allowed a view of the immense landscape and able to perceive the vastness of the river. It is along this hillside that we focused our attentions on the possibility of constructing a bamboo walkway. Without being invasive and using natural materials and building skills, we perceive the walkway as something that would enhance the landscape. Although bamboo pylons raise it from the ground, rendering it visible from the river, the aim is to build an organic structure that would immerse itself in the surrounding habitat. The walkway it-
self would be between 600 and 800 metres long with some areas covered by woven bamboo to create a tunnel effect, and although restricting the view, vista points or windows would be inserted concentrating ones view, so in essence by way of a perceived negation or hindrance, a direct dialogue could be attained between viewer and subject, through an elevated sense of self and other. While a walkway cum bridge could be seen as a metaphor for the meeting of different cultures, an important aspect of the project is to construct a low impact functional structure through the exchange of ideas and building practices with the local population. Equally important aspects are to attempt to transform an area of little use into an area of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;common groundâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; by way of inserting a cultural asset in the environment. This, partly in aid of lessening social tensions between South and North Guwahati citizens and partly to hinder and make visible uncontrolled development with the intention of preserving a place by way of
highlighting it’s presence. While the walkway is in some sense an experiment, it is intended to remain a permanent entity, a structure that would witness the changes that it itself has created and the future changes that would be generated by its’ presence - all the while creating a work in ‘constant progress’ and ‘evolution’ that would involve an entire village. While Periferry has already collaborated with Microclima during the 2011 Venice Biennale in Italy, the Walkway would be the result of the first collaboration in India, and in succession, would represent a reference point for future collaborations between Microclima and Periferry in the region, rather than just being perceived as a singular event.
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