Bhubaneswar Museum of Waste-to-Art

India’s waste burden is quite unpleasant and garbage can be noticed lying everywhere in the streets & roadsides across India. It has been estimated that the nation generates 62 million tonnes of waste every year at an annual growth of 4 %. It has always been a concern for govt and city planners regarding ways to tackle this waste menace. Some have suggested for the plastic ban while some have suggested imposing fine to defaulters. A possible solution has been made artistically by Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) for a museum of scrap sculptures through the opening of Bhubaneswar Museum of Waste-to-Art at BDA Park, Sector 7, Kalinga Vihar, around 8 km drive from Khandagiri Square.

Once a visitor enters the museum complex, he is sure to get spellbound by the sheer artistic creativity done on the 28+ art installations there. The artists have used around 50 tonnes of scrap material arranged locally from cycle parts like tyre rims, freewheel, cranks, auto rickshaw body, car & truck junk, scrap irons, metals, oil drums, construction materials, plastics & tyres etc. The scrap was arranged after a initial discussion with the possible artists beforehand regarding their wish list & available resources locally. The Waste-to-Art museum has been created as part of Odisha state’s first International Public Art Symposium held from 1^st to 19^th Nov 2018 & inaugurated a day later by honourable CM. It was organised by charitable trust Artists Network Promoting Indian Culture (ANPIC) at the 5 acre museum site donated by BDA. It’s an initiative to aware people on waste materials through art and also encourage and inspire the young artists of Odisha to come up with new ideas of awareness through art. The general public are also expected to have a favourable view on waste material management.

Keeping in mind the Men’s Hockey World Cup being organised in Bhubaneswar, a proposal was made involving the 15 participating countries with India being the 16^th team & the host. Reputed international artists from 14 hockey playing countries turned up accompanied by 7 Indian artists and few more co-artists . Only Pakistan could not turn up due to visa issues. The prominent artist of international repute includes Augusto Daniel Gallo (Argentina), Heidi McGeoch (Australia), Didier Lemans (Belgium), Royden Mills (Canada), Jiang Chu (China), Noah Rose (England, Matteo Baroni (France), Nils Hansen (Germany), Paddy Bloomer (Ireland), Rosli Zakaria (Malaysia), Anita Maria Wilhemina de Harde (Netherland), Donald Burglass (New Zealand), Sandile Radebe (South Africa) & Daniel Perez Suarez (Spain) . The Indian list includes  Jeetender Kumar Ojha, Chuguli Sahoo, Sanivada Lakshman Kumar, Valsan Koorma Kolleri, Chitrasen, Kanta Kishore Maharana & Gyana Ranjan Panda assisted by other local collaborators. The proposed land was handed over to the artists by 1^st November for starting the work on the sculptures. Some turned to nature for their inspiration, be it wild animals like tiger, lion, bull, elephant, fish, deer, owl, peacock, bird, macaque, hyena or even olive ridley while some went for abstract kinetic creations. Interestingly some creations were quite interactive and the artists have shown their minimum generosity to mention their collaborator and assistant names in the art work.

The images of art installations are displayed in the photo gallery below. To view it, please click on any image :). Note:- Due to data insufficiency, the complete art installation details could not be updated as of now & selective art work images have been shared here.

The Waste-to-Art Museum is a beautiful initiative to sensitize people about the ecology and environment. The main focus is on alarming issues like global warming, deforestation, flood, and also act for wildlife conservation especially which are endangered from natural calamities, road kill, hunting, poaching etc.  It will put a spotlight on species like the Olive Ridley Turtle, the Indian Elephant, Black Buck, Royal Bengal Tiger, Lion-tailed Macaque etc. Themed on ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’, the Waste-to-Art Museum will be a great tourist attraction for both art lover & artists, besides the general public. But, news is that visitors needs to wait till the landscaping, entry gate, boundary, shifting of high power overhead lines  & lighting work is over along with a dedicated portal. The remaining vacant space shall be filled up in due course by installing fresh art creations by other artists in near future. There’s a big plan for an event involving over 100 international artists is in pipeline for 2020 at this theme museum. Till then , stay tuned for updates !

Route: Khandagiri Square>Jaydev Vatika>Naka Gate> Ghatikia>Appejay School>Sector 7 (Kalinga Vihar), Vipul Greens> BDA Park.
Google map : https://www.google.com/maps?cid=8969490578988251005&shorturl=1
All Images: Taranisen Pattnaik