Bhubaneswar: India’s 1st International Public Art Symposium (IPAS) was kicked off today here at Kalinga Nagar area of Bhubaneswar where eminent persons including Manoj Kumar Mohanty, Secretary, BDA, Bhabani Sankar Chayani, Member Enforcement, BDA, Debasundar Mohapatra, City Engineer BMC, Sashanka Mohapatra, Managing Trustee, ANPIC, Khitish Das, Curator IPAS, Ashokananda Dhar, Chief Horticulturist, BDA, Suparna Surabhita Das, Assistant Town Planner, BDA, local Councilor, Dilip Kumar Majhi were on the dias along with the International and National Artists. Jointly organized by Artists Network Promoting Indian Culture (ANPIC) and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) the Symposium will create sculptures out of Waste Materials, which will be later displayed in an Open Air Sculpture Museum. Artists of 14 countries were also present at the inaugural ceremony who are going to create the sculptures during next 20 days.
Speaking on the occasion Sashanka Mohapatra, Managing Trustee, ANPIC said, “IPAS is not only an initiative to aware people on waste materials through art but to encourage and inspire the young artists of Odisha to come up with new ideas of awareness through art. The congregation of artists of international stature is expected to encourage more people for showing interest towards Art.” IPAS is one of ANPIC’s art promotion initiatives. There are lot many activities being undertaken to promote Odisha’s art and culture in various National & International platforms under this banner and many to come in future, he further added.
Few international artists who attended the programme are Daniel Pérez Suárez – Spain, Paddy Bloomer – Ireland, Royden Mills – Canada, Donald Buglass – New Zealand, Augusto Daniel Gallo – Argentina, Matteo Baroni – Italia, JIANG CHU – China, Didier Leemans – Belgium, Heidi McGeoch – Australia, Anita Maria Wilhelmina de Harde – Netherland, Rosli Zakaria – Malaysia and Sandile Radebe – South Africa. And few national co-artists are – Rahul N. Bante, Levant Ganpat Gavande, Akash Ashok Tirmal, Pankaj Shivcharan Dhumone, Appalachari Chalapaka, Ajit Kumar Manna, Hrushikesh Rana, Bidyadhar Majhi, Kedarnath Majhi, Baruna Behera and Manoranjan Das.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhabani Sankar Chayani, Member Enforcement, BDA said, “As Bhubaneswar has been declared as the No.1 smart city in the country, it is one of our major agenda to show our smartness through this type of initiative. It is indeed a great endeavor for all of us because we are going to showcase this museum to the entire country that waste is not a waste, rather it can also be of aesthetic value that is sculptures. So that we become conscious to use the waste generated which can be reused not by dumping it here and there and polluting the environment but by creating beautiful sculptures which would act as an aesthetic indicator of a civilized society.”
IPAS is India’s 1st live sculpturing programme held under ANPIC’s 40-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 have participated. 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 environment, Climate Change and Reuse of Waste Materials etc.
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 eco-friendly message. Focus to be made on alarming issues like global warming, deforestation, flood, and also protection of our wildlife species specially 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.
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 green house 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 against climate change by removing the alarming and rising amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
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