Work in progress for Bihar Divas celebrations at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, March 15: When India locked horns with South Africa in the ICC World Cup league match on March 13, most of us simply forgot the warmth the two nations shared historically and celebrated the fall of every batsman of Nelson Mandela’s country. But not Sanjeev Sinha. He was busy depicting Mahatma Gandhi’s struggle for indentured Indian labourers in South Africa through a 10-ft-tall statue made for Bihar Divas.

“I tried to visualise Gandhiji’s struggle in South Africa,” he said. His Protean colleague Johan, concerned about the condition of women in India, has created a rickshaw covered with barbed wires and dolls as passengers.

Sanjeev and Johan have been working to create artworks for Bihar Divas — to be celebrated by the state government to mark 99 years of Bihar’s statehood — that has been given an international touch. Artists from nine countries — France, the US, England, Ireland, Japan, Germany, Tibet, South Africa and The Netherlands — are working to showcase Bihar’s cultural and historical past in the three-day-long event at Gandhi Maidan from March 22.

Explaining Johan’s work, Sikha Sinha, another artist, said: “There is a strong message in his work. The artist has tried to portray how girls are kept isolated from the real world and neglected by the male-dominated Indian society. He has tried to portray how the girls can come out of the vicious circle of social injustice.”

“The theme of the fest is world peace and our artists have tried to send out the message of peace and harmony,” said Sikha.

“Everything that is being portrayed has a certain meaning. The artists have worked hard for this,” said Sanjeev, also the project director for the international artists.

He added: “In Bodhgaya, we organised an international camp last month. We were invited by the state government to organise it.”

Most of the works that will be showcased at the event — like a 15-ft-high statue of Buddha by the Tibetan artist Tashi — have been made of aluminium and barbed wires.

The Asokan pillars, the state secretariat and Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa are some of the other works to be put on display. French artist Nelly Mesra has made a jhula for children.

“The labourer made of cement shows how a life of a labourer is tough and how a labourer works hard all his life. This, too, has been made by Johan,” said Sinha.

American artist Michael has depicted the water crisis by making a globe using plastic water bottles.

Alok Jain, the co-ordinator of Bihar Divas and the man responsible for conceptualising the structure of the event, said: “The celebrations will start with a three-day-programme. But a number of events have been lined up for the whole year, when Bihar will complete 100 years of statehood. The other events include folk songs and dance performances, plays, kavi sammelans and food festivals at different venues.”