German artist Gregor Schneider will design the pandal of a south Calcutta puja

This autumn will see the marriage of “cutting-edge” German contemporary art with Durga Puja.

German artist Gregor Schneider, awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2001 for his installation work Totes Haus u r, will design the pandal shell of a popular south Calcutta puja, with the art installation set to be shipped to Germany later for display at various European museums.

The Euros-100,000 project — “It’s all Rheydt, Kolkata 2011, Unterheydener Straße 12” — to be part-funded by the German foreign office, will be a thematic recreation of the ancestral home of the German artist, born in Rheydt, now called Mönchengladbach-Rheydt.

“Schneider was fascinated by the city and its festivals, specifically, by the manual skills of the local craftspeople involved in the elaborate ritual architecture, during his maiden visit to Calcutta in March last year,” Reimar Volker, the director of the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, tells Metro.

Volker, a prime mover behind the “art-in-public-space” cross-pollination, believes Schneider’s concepts and style of work “blend beautifully” with the concept of temporary pandal constructions for the Durga Puja festival. MMB is in the process of finalising the collaboration with the local puja committee.

Schneider, whose main area of work is constructed rooms, will create the model of the pandal, to be executed by the puja committee and local craftsmen, integrating their own inputs. Haus u r Rheydt will travel to Calcutta in the form of technical drawings, photographs and documentary material.

After the festival, the entire installation will be dismantled and transported to Germany for display, including at Kassel and other art centres and museums across Europe. Volker feels this project can change the perception of Calcutta and put the city firmly on the international arts map.

Vivek Bharadwaj, the chief executive officer of the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority, agrees this will be “very interesting not only in terms of cultural exchange, but also by way of taking Durga Puja, the largest outdoor art festival on earth”, to the rest of the world.

Bharadwaj was part of a delegation that travelled to Germany to interact with artists and explore the concept of art in public space in July last year. Moved by Schneider’s work, he was the one who came up with the idea of asking the German artist to be part of Durga Puja.

The project will be the highlight of the inaugural events of the ‘Germany and India Year 2011-12’ and is supported by the German foreign office and German industry, with the Goethe-Institut coordinating on the ground with the local puja organisers.

The main principle of ‘It’s all Rheydt, Kolkata 2011, Unterheydener Straße 12’ is based on the background of ‘Haus u r Rheydt’, that means weirdly claustrophobic, partly isolated rooms and walls built in front of stark walls.

“There was a bit of scepticism from the German side initially as they wondered if it wouldn’t be blasphemy to have something so dark in such a joyful festival. But the sheer enthusiasm of Schneider, who wants his artwork to be immersed in the vibrancy of the Pujas, swept away the doubts,” smiles Volker.