Entertainment News | Painting a Revolution: How Participatory Art Practices Usher in Better Living for Women in Marthahalli Slum Board Colony

Bengaluru, July 15 (PTI): The colourful wall murals at the slum board colony in Marthahalli in suburban Bengaluru have not only changed its dreary surroundings instantly, they have also empowered the women living there.

A year ago, the slum board colony, home to people from different corners of India who come to bustling Bengaluru to make a living, was like any other informal settlement. The divide, on the lines of caste and language, was too pronounced for people to come together as one.

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That changed to a larger extent with Alli Serona, a collective of civil society organisations, creators, and think tanks, which uses participatory art practices to leverage social change.

Tanisha Arora, a senior creative strategist and key spokesperson for the initiative, told PTI, “The efforts made by other NGOs here already helped us immensely. Once we could get them all together by breaking the ice with participatory art, we could straight away start on talking about issues that matter the most to them. Here in Marthahalli, we focussed on mobility challenges.”

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According to Arora, although the effects of climate change are first felt by informal settlements, their voices are often absent in decision-making spaces and processes.

“Alli Serona movement is an attempt to ensure that the voices of the most vulnerable stakeholders are not only heard but also amplified,” added Arora.

Thus started a series of workshops, ranging from kawdi or quilt-making and block printing to wall painting and rangoli, bringing women from different communities together.

“In just a year, Alli Serona has successfully demonstrated how participatory art practices can empower even the most underserved women and help them transcend language barriers, cultural differences, and social divides.”

What worked for the collective is that the women, denied any kind of public space, were looking for a platform that would give them a respite from the daily grind and offer them, what Arora terms as, ‘a shared opportunity for dialogue, self-expression, and mutual connection'.

Arora said Marthahalli is just the beginning. The plan is to recreate its success in many other such settlements. “We have already started our work in 20 colonies. The idea is to work together with whoever interested in bringing about a change. For instance, the work in Marathahalli was done in partnership with Aravani Art Project. They were already working with the trans community living here,” added Arora.

To bring about awareness and more such collaborative efforts, the success story of Marthahalli, made into a documentary called ‘Alli Serona-Together in Art' by Falana Films, was screened on July 13 at the Alliance Françoise in Bengaluru.

The 15-minute film, besides explaining about the concept of Alli Serona, celebrates the resilience of women like Parvathamma and Chand Bi who now regularly steal a little time for themselves from their busy schedules. Says Manjula, a resident of the Marthahalli slum board quarters, in the film: “I don't worry about my household problems when I'm engaged in these workshops. And there is this sense of satisfaction.”

The evening also saw a panel discussion on how participatory art can be leveraged for social change by Bindu Chandana, founder of Ficus Ideas, which stresses on innovative learning, Shanthi Muniswamy, a mural artist from Aravani Art Project, Indu Anthony, an artist based out of Bangalore, Netra, co-founder and principal architect of Studio Sorted along with Arora.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)