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| Gregor Schneider |
A little bit of Germany is being built, bamboo pole by bamboo pole, at the Ekdalia Evergreen Club Puja pandal this year.
The traditional puja has deviated from its style and come up with “it’s all Rheydt” Kolkata 2011 by German contemporary artist Gregor Schneider. The project is a collaboration between Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan India and the Ekdalia Evergreen Club.
The pandal is going to be a mix of Schneider’s ancestral home in Rheydt and some traditional flavours of Puja.
“I brought the model with me but the technique, materials and method of creation are all from Calcutta,” said Schneider, whose main area of work is constructed rooms, at Max Mueller Bhavan, Calcutta, on Tuesday.
After days of co-ordination with local artisans via video-conferencing, Schneider, who arrived in Calcutta a few days ago, can now be seen hanging around at the Ekdalia pandal for hours, instructing the artisans and overseeing the construction of the pandal.
“He is like a volunteer with us, spending all his time at the pandal,” said state minister Subrata Mukherjee, the president of the club.
Visitors to the pandal can expect to see a German road inside the pandal, with the rest of the space turned into a“basement”. There will be elements from Durga Puja incorporated into the overall design as well. What about the final product? Even Schneider does not know.
“It is an organic process. I brought a road to Calcutta but the road is changing. It will enter some part of my house in Germany but the happiness, colour and the puja part of the festival will also be incorporated,” the artist said.
A first round of discussion, where Schneider was briefed about the Calcutta High Court norms, the need for waterproofing and other details resulted in the model being modified to an extent. But the process did not stop there. “We are now in the middle of an interesting conflict about the use of colours. The artisans want more colour while I want less,” Schneider laughed.
The public art angle of Durga Puja and its temporariness are what drew Schneider to the project in the first place. The artist wants to immerse a part of his work in the Hooghly.
“I want to take the sculpture out of the river — clay and all — and take it to Germany, as well as a part of the pandal. I also want to create a Calcutta puja pandal in Germany with German artists,” he said.
The Puja is expected to be inaugurated on Panchami by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, along with minister Mukherjee, Schneider and a host of other dignitaries. “We are looking forward to an eclectic mix of Schneider’s Germany and the shabeki idol by Sanatan Rudra Pal, along with illumination by Chandernagore artists,” said Mukherjee.