Friday 9 September 2011

Art In Gaon


Gurgaon or the millennium city, a town of aspirations and hopes!  Migrants came from different countries, states and cities to fulfill their dreams. It embraced everybody with open arms on its path to development. They all brought a part of their culture with them and tried to live that. Before the development of new Gurgaon, we had never heard of Durga Puja and Ganesh Chaturthi being celebrated in this city. But now it has become an annual celebration. A true cosmopolitan city!
Whenever I think about Gurgaon, another culture that comes to mind is mall culture. Swanky malls with national and international brands attracting people of different economic backgrounds. Malls have also contributed to culture by offering Christmas discounts and Holi bonanza. I cannot forget the time of the 2011 Cricket World Cup Tournament. All the malls had put up big TV screens for viewers and euphoria was perceptible when India won the match. It was like a flash mob. People were dancing uninhibitedly till four in the morning.
Besides all these, another type of culture is developing in this town is “Art Culture”. Very few people know about this. Many prominent artists of our country have made this city their address. They have either their residences or their studios in this town.
Gurgaon can always boast of Bharti Kher’s Art factory in Udhyog Vihar and husband Subodh Gupta’s state of the art studio with storage space for his shinning steel utensils or Arun Kumar HG’s Eco sensitive studio close to sector 55. Jagannath Panda’s studio at sector 54 also enhances the arty culture of Gurgaon.

Thukral and Tagra, of T&T, who have their studio in sector 23, were probably the first one to move here. Contemporary Indian ceramic artist Vineet Kacker’s studio in DLF Phase 2 is the place where he brings soul to the clay. Pottery designer Anju Kumar operates from her studio in Sushant lok 1. Mukul Goyal who is famous for utility based steel figures is also now a ‘Gurgaonite’.

All this brings another dimension to the city. Epicentre- a cultural centre, Devi Art Foundation and so many art galleries are like jewels of the crown of this young and unorganized city.


People come with lot of expectations and lack of infrastructure disappoints them, but nobody can stop us from having dreams. After all we have kingdom of dreams only in our city!

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for writing this article. Finally someone writing about Gurgaon being more than a mall city.

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  2. well said! Gurgaon is growing very fast and it is a millenium city in making. But I wish authorities here also take pride in that and work towards the improvement
    of the roads and the infrastructure.

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  3. Very well said and very informative!

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