City as Museum series

A walk in the Delhi’s Kishanganj Area, exploring uncared parts of the city led by Artist & Educator Shruti Sarkar

Thinking of museum, often a question arises, what is ‘worth’, museumization?

Does paths, spaces, neighborhoods, shops, old tress can be museamized? Being born and raised in a 100-year-old Railway colony, that falls at the periphery of the gated city of Shahjanadabad (Chandni Chowk), and after relocating from there, I started to think about the idea of being ‘local’ to somewhere. What it constitutes, the familiar faces, understanding of the inhabitants, and local economy, mythical stories, and ways of navigation? Or the ecological shifts and changing landscapes.

This walk delves into the city's "Hinterland", those neglected peripheries where non-linear development has created a sense of temporal displacement. It's an intervention, a reading of the city's nuanced layers, where vulnerability, marginalization, and deterioration are palpable. We'll encounter three distinct layers of urban neglect, each revealing a different facet of the city's uncared-for spaces. This is an attempt to understand how we perceive and interpret the city beyond its curated facades, engaging with the raw, unfiltered narratives embedded within its neglected corners.

Pre-requisites

· For this walk, participants are urged to wear comfortable clothes (something they’d wear as if they are going out in their neighbourhood to fetch bread and milk).

· To begin with, Participants are asked to bring some archival image, object, memory from the time that is still alive to this millennium but doesn’t belong to the present.

Participants can engage with any of the acts: drawing, recording video/sound, cognitive mapping, collecting objects, photographs/ zines or having a conversation. The idea is to sensorially engage with the space and make observations and record them.

Outcome

The walk will be realised in a mini museum form: A rack (a portable museum) that each participant is going to build, through their response and discussion around the experiential aspect of a space, what one can think of to activate these uncared parts of the city. This activity will take place in Mahila Park inside Kishanganj Railway quarters area.