Open Air Museum of Waste-to-Art Reflects Merger of Waste and Creativity

Open Air Museum of Waste-to-Art Reflects Merger of Waste and Creativity

As Bhubaneswar welcomed its first Open Air Museum of Waste-to-Art at K7 area in the city, the denizens can now witness a living testimony of just how waste can transform into a beautiful form of art.The Bhubaneswar Open Air Museum of Waste-to-Art in K7, Kalinga Vihar, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday. The Museum boasts of 24 wonderful sculptures created from waste by twenty-two artists from 15 nations across the world. Inaugurating the event Chief Minister said, “Bhubaneswar Open Air Museum of Waste-to-Art is a good initiative. I congratulate the organisers for this effort to make the international art symposium successful. All the sculptures are strikingly beautiful.’’The artists  worked for 20 days during the first International Public Art Symposium organised by Artists Network Promoting Indian Culture (ANPIC) in association with Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). The development work of the park will begin soon and more sculptures will be added. “ANPIC has done a great job and as per the plan, there will be proper development including parking space, pathways, greenery and other landscaping work at the site to give the sculptures a unique ambience in the near future. The entire area could also be developed into a full-fledged open-air museum,’’ said BDA official, Bhabani Shankar Chayani. Managing Trustee of ANPIC, Sashanka Mohapatra said, “Our objective has been achieved. Through this event we want to convey the message that nothing is waste if we learn how to manage it. The idea of creating something new out of waste materials would propagate people to come up with better waste management techniques.”

The artists began their work with nearly 50 tonnes of scrap materials, mainly metals collected from different junkyards of the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, including the industrial estates, to create these masterpieces.The art works mainly represent animals, birds, plants conveying a message of wildlife conservation.  Some artists were also influenced by Buddhism which reflected in their work. “We have a lot of time collecting and getting the right types of wastes to create the art objects. However, we will keep them as they will not be painted with any other colour. We want people to see the wastes taking shapes with their normal vision and know what type of transformation could happen to wastes,’’ said city-based artist Kantakishore Maharana.However, post the inauguration, it was revealed that there will be an application of simple chemical coating over the art objects to resist rusting, and to keep the natural colours of the waste intact. On the inaugural day there was a huge footfall of more than 3,000 people at the Open Air Museum of Waste-to-Art. People were seen taking selfies near the sculptures which mainly represent animals, birds, plants, conservation, Olive Ridley, wildlife, and philosophies of life. Many foreign artists also created works which were influenced from Indian themes. All the artists who participated in the event were overwhelmed with the response from visitors on the first day. Sharing about her overall experience, Paddy Bloomer, an artist from Ireland said, “It has been an excellent experience. Working with Indian artists and getting the opportunity to share the space with some excellent artists from different countries was amazing.” Paddy Bloomer’s sculpture engaged most of the young children who visited the museum. “I am glad that kids are having a good time with my work. I wanted to involve the audience with my creation and I am happy that I achieved that.”Argentinean artist Augusto Daniel Gallo said, “This was my first to India, in fact, to Asia and I really enjoyed the whole experience. I am taking back good memories that I have experienced during my 21-day stay.”More than 3 Crore was spent by ANPIC to create the museum with sculptures from waste materials. Khitish Das, curator of the project, was of the opinion that more and more sculptures would be added in future so that when people visit the open-air museum they would get to see a variety of art objects. “We have used only metal this time around, but we would include other waste materials also. The budget for the project crossed our expectation, because purchasing tonnes of waste materials, equipments and giving proper facilities to all the artists was a difficult task. We are hopeful that state government will support us in our endeavour to make the Open air museum more interesting for visitors in future,”