LAHORE: Academics, artists and travellers presented their research work and experiences, exploring the relationships of people with the cities they live in and the struggle between modernity and tradition.
The speakers shared their work at the three-day 7th International THAAP Conference titled ‘People and the City’ that began on Friday.
In the first session, which was chaired by noted human rights activist IA Rehman, four papers were presented.
Micheal Gikson, a PhD candidate at School of Art, College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University, Canberra, presented his paper titled ‘Art and Immersion: Notes from a Painter (Re)imagining the City’.
Her paintings were records of her travels and experiences across Australia, India and Pakistan, focusing on the relationships of people with their environments. She explained that everyday conversations with the locals held the social history of any city within them.
Rehana Lafont, a Pakistani-born French author, translator, traveller and entrepreneur, presented the second paper of the day titled ‘Seventeen Years in Lahore: A Frenchman’s Life in the Punjabi Capital’. Her paper focused on the impact of French military men during their service in Raja Ranjit Singh’s reign.
She explored the impact of French culture in arts and its impact on the cities of Punjab. The paper discussed Lahore’s day-to-day life in different contexts by taking into account the experiences of various French officials.
Another paper on ‘Retreating Akhara Culture in Expanding Metropolitan’ was presented by Umair Ghani, a freelance photographer, and Amna Yaseen, a photographer and a painter currently pursuing her MPhil in art history. The paper discussed the rapid decline in appreciation for traditional physical exertions or pehalwans (wrestlers) as a result of urbanism in Punjab.
Inaugural session
During the inauguration session, THAAP conference convener Prof Pervaiz Vandal was the keynote speaker and explained the theme in detail. “Without people a city or town would be a soulless mass of debris,” he said. “People make a city happen. They bring it forth, give it character, endow it with art and culture, fulfil aspirations and suffer frustrations. City changes with its people.”
He added that huge metropolises – megacities – carried social turmoil in their wake. “Nevertheless, agglomeration of humans, from small town to the large metropolis, is an opportunity, a necessary step towards the future. It is entirely up to us to think about and design a better future,” he said.
The inaugural session was attended by writers, scholars, historians, economists, sociologists, artists, town planners, designers, architects ad delegates from Australia, Austria, China, France, Germany, Iran, Nepal, USA, UK and from various cities of Pakistan. The welcome address was delivered by THAAP CEO Prof Sajida Haider Vandal, an educationist and architect.
THAAP Photography Conference in collaboration with ‘Camera for People’ and an art exhibition in collaboration with Ejaz Art Gallery have also been organised on the same theme of the conference and will continue till November 14.
The conference has been organised by THAAP in collaboration with the Government College University and Information Technology University together with the support of the Higher Education Commission and the Society for Cultural Education, a forthcoming university of culture and art.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2016.
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