PHOTO: TWITTER @Sangrisaeed
So said speakers at 'Art in Your Mohalla: A Dialogue for a Megapolis of Harmony for the Future,' one of the sessions on the final day of this year's edition of the Karachi Literature Festival.
Rebuffing the idea that art is merely for the elite, they insisted that art blooms the most when it is most felt, regardless of the creed, caste and culture of the people.
Moderated by art interventionist Niilofar Farrukh, the panel also featured Aquila Ismail, an educationist who has long been affiliated with the Orangi Pilot Project, architect Tariq Alexander Qaiser, whose fascination with mangroves and nature has propelled much of his art, artist Sohail Zuberi, who is enchanted by the secrets of the sea, and artist, curator and educator Romila Kareem.
Orbiting around the factors that determine the future of art in the port city, Farrukh said that the size of Karachi's population, along with the education and will to prosper of its people, would mark where the world will see the metropolis in coming years.
"Our dear city - rather, our home - that rears millions needs us now the most," she said, highlighting how our contributions in creating safe and secure places for dialogue can be a way to pay the city back for all it has given us."
Underscoring the fact that 15 per cent of the city's population comprises of people living in katchi abadis (slum areas), Ismail also pointed out how the population of Orangi Town has risen from 800,000 to 2.3 million - around 10 per cent of Karachi's total population - in recent years.
"As the poverty-stricken people of the city of lights try to rise at least a few inches above the ground each day, art and education invigorates courage and optimism in the masses to not give up on setting suns, but work hard for revitalising mornings," she said, referring to the OPP that has been restoring art in unprivileged areas of the city since 1980, providing space for both art and the people to breathe.
Shedding light on her efforts to incorporate art in learning and education, especially for children in schools, Kareem asserted that in order for art to be impactful, it should permeate into mohallas on the grassroot level, rather than just being limited to ethereal showpieces in the drawing rooms of the rich and privileged.
Meanwhile, asking about Zuberi's encounters with the sea, Farrukh sought to uncover his view on how the beaches that are forever associated with Karachi symbolise the grandiosity that the city harbours in terms of art and history.
"My project of collecting degradable materials from the shore and then turning them into useful products like furniture and swings was initiated when I was looking for clean places for my dogs to stroll in the evenings. This was when I discovered a stretch of sea near Clifton - totally uncharted," Zuberi shared.
Once he discovered his passion for fusing art into our mundane lives, he explained, he ended up spending most of his days near beaches, gathering wooden planks, nails and rocks, bringing them into his studios, and then taking his finished art to public places such as parks for display.
Ruing how the dense mangrove forests that add to the city's scenic beauty have fallen prey to our urban needs and demands, Qaiser shared how he first began to capture photographs for his personal archives and books, but later realised that the world needs to know about the environmental devastation it is causing.
"I remember how I felt when the mangrove forest I visited the most along the coast in interior Sindh, which was also my escape from the hustle of city life, was chopped down in 2016. I couldn't go back there ever again. It was then that this issue became my area of focus," he explained.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 2nd, 2020.
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