International public art symposium in Bhubaneswar by ANPIC

Bhubaneswar:  In a bid to boost socio-cultural art in Odisha, Artists Network Promoting Indian Culture (ANPIC) along with Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) announced India’s 1^st International Public Art Symposium (IPAS) from 1^st November in Bhubaneswar.

The event will continue till November 20.

Well-known artists from 14 countries will attend and create sculptures from Waste materials, which will be permanently displayed at a Sculpture Museum provided by BDA for the people of Odisha.

IPAS is India’s 1^st live sculpturing programme to be held under ANPIC’s 20-day event- Odisha Triennial of International Art (OTIA) held in Odisha.

In this sculpturing programme, internationally and nationally renowned 20 artists and 20 young emerging co-artists from 14 countries namely Australia, France, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Malaysia, Sweden, China, England, Canada, Belgium, New Zealand, Spain, Ireland will participate.

The live sculpturing will continue for 20 days and after that, an open-air sculpture museum will be inaugurated. Themed on ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’, the museum would serve as the only open-air Public Art Waste Material Sculpture Museum in the Smart city which would create awareness amongst people of Odisha on the environment, Climate Change and Reuse of Waste Materials etc.

Speaking on the occasion, Sashanka Mohapatra, Managing Trustee, ANPIC said, “Art is a universal language that has the ability to touch the everyday lives of the common people. And through this art symposium, we would endeavour to aware Odisha as well as the nation about our ecosystem for bringing about environmental as well as social changes.”

The event is envisioned as part of the state’s active involvement in issues of a secular theme and nature through socio-cultural arts. The artworks which are intended to be made mainly from waste material and scrap metal will propagate the eco-friendly message.

Focus to be made on alarming issues like global warming, deforestation, flood, and also protection of our wildlife species especially which are endangered from natural calamities, road kill, hunting, poaching etc.

It will put a spotlight on species like the Odisha Olive Ridley Turtle, the Indian /Odisha Elephant, the Indian Rhino, the Nilgiri Tahr, the Bengal Tiger, the Blackbuck, Snow Leopard and the Lion-Tailed Macaque to name a few.

Speaking on the programme, Bhabani Sankar Chayani, Member Enforcement, BDA, said, “This is a great initiative by ANPIC where international artists would come and create sculptures from waste materials in the space provided by BDA near Kalinga Nagar.”

“This programme has two major objectives — one is to aware people about the waste materials with the campaign ‘Reduce, Reuse & Recycle’. And the other is one should think about the aesthetics of this initiative,” he added.

The event will also play a role in the government promoting better environmental practices, like the complete banning of plastic bags, the reduction of large buildings with reflective surfaces, the reduction of greenhouse gases and carbon footprint on the planet, better use of public transport reduction of pollutants that lead to the increase of global warming.

The planting of new forests can help mitigate climate change by removing the alarming and rising amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.