Bhubaneswar: The much-awaited Bhubaneswar Art Trail that will showcase the traditional old city and modern day capital from November 18 has started taking shape with the mapping of infrastructure requirements and engagement with local community.

Besides, a curators' team was formed with Prem Jisk Achari, well-known artist Jagannath Panda, and Hannah Barnes at the helm of affairs.

The month-long art rrail will be inaugurated on November 18 and continue till December 18. Curators have already been appointed and artist invites sent out.

The Bhubaneswar Urban Knowledge Centre of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority has already mapped the infrastructure requirements in detail. Social Mobilisation has also begun following engagements with schools, local bodies and residents along the trail.

Engagement with the local residents began with door-to-door campaigns, engaging local clubs and associations, building stakeholder relationships.

The trail will be mainly funded by the departments of tourism and sports & youth services along with Tata Steel. The title of the event - Navigation Offline - is a reminder to society's reliance on technology to identify, access, and reach destinations.

Taking inspiration from travelogues and medieval travel poetry such as those of Japanese poet Matsuo Basho, the art trail project aims to look at the world and experience it without the mediation of screens and technologies.

This unique project, being jontly executed by Utsha Foundation, Bhubaneswar Development Authority, Bhubaneswar Urban Knowledge Centre and the Bhuban-eswar Municipal Corporation will include exploring the history, lived realities and social relations of the various communities and address issues of access, exclusion, discrimination, and understanding the aspirations of the community.

Through these various individual interventions along the trail, the objective is to enhance a practice of art that emerges from the local community and involves the local scene to promote social and environmental development in the community.

Eminent artist Jagannath Panda, a member of the curators' team for the trail, said: "It is going to be a unique public art exhibition in India, which will take art closer to the communities. The way people have opened up their residential areas and premises for us to hold the exhibition is heart touching. It places immense responsibility on us to do justice to this project and their support."

"We invited tartists from Odisha, India and abroad to use art to propose a new vision for cities. We are trying to make a statement through this exhibition, especially about the relevance of history, memory, community, social relations in the formation of a city. The artworks will create an experiential journey in this trail where the viewers will navigate to experience the best of contemporary art and tell unique stories," he added.