MANAV GUPTA

‘Arth – art for earth’ is Indian contemporary artist Manav Gupta’s brainchild of 20 years and it explores the meaning of life. ‘Arth’ means ‘wealth’ and ‘meaning’ in the Devanagri script. Through ‘Arth’, a travelling museum which is scheduled to travel across 29 mega cities across the world, the artist explores the earth and nature and urges us to ‘stop a while’ and think about living a life of environmental consciousness. Arth’s exhibitions in clay started in Pretoria, South Africa in 2013 where it was hosted by the National Museum and Indian High Commission. Since then, owing to the exhibition’s success, it has been showcased at various other locations including Aerocity, New Delhi in 2014; India Habitat Centre, New Delhi in 2015; Old Fort, Delhi in 2016; DLF Mall of India, Noida as the Yamuna Project in 2017 followed by a prototype of his Permanent Museum at Amrita Shergill Marg, New Delhi. The 2018 edition was launched on World Environment Day, hosted by IGNCA, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The artist’s signature suite of ‘excavations in hymns of clay’ is set-up in the 23 acres of IGNCA lawns. The exhibits are made of clay and pottery in different forms imitating nature and are created as ‘excavations’ from ideas of sustainable development. The art installations include ‘The Bed of Life’, ‘The River’, ‘The Beehives Garden’, ‘Rain’, ‘Time Machine, and ‘Noah’s Ark’ and they are made different forms of pottery– earthen lamps (“diyas”), local cigar (“chilam”), earthen cups (“kullar”)– transforming them into monumental art installations which are environment friendly and also supports local artists. What’s more, the travelling museum’s River Waterfront also transforms into a platform for people from different walks of life in the leading megacities to come together and discuss important environmental issues and the need for sustainable development through art poetry and cultural performances. And if we don’t address these problems now, we all will have to be the ‘Noah’s Ark’. The exhibition is currently on-going at IGNCA, New Delhi till October 22, 2018.