Labyrinth of Stories of the Lost Waterways of Kolkata

Client

Accor Hotels, Novotel Kolkata

Date:

Dec 2024

Brief Description

Our Christmas tree has been reimagined as a Labyrinth of Stories of the Lost Waterways of Kolkata. The canals of Kolkata are not just waterways transferring sewage and excess water out of the city; our city's lifelines carry history, heritage, memories and heart-warming stories of community and ecological resilience. Kolkata's population density is 24000 persons per sq.km(2011 census), which creates the greatest pressure on urban ecology in terms of land and water use and solid waste management. Our city’s boundary is marked by the Hooghly in the West and a vast stretch of Wetlands in the East. The river system comprising several canals, tributaries, and distributaries is intrinsically connected to the city's drainage and health. These East Kolkata wetlands have acted as reservoir where urban and industrial wastewater has been directed through several East-flowing canals since colonial times to save the main river that acts as a lifeline of the city. As unrestricted and exponential development continues in Kolkata, we are fast losing our natural waterscape infrastructure, Kolkata's canal network, nature's marvel harnessed by human design that keeps this city truly flowing. As our endless non-biodegradable garbage clogs every gate and channel of this system, and industrial effluents contaminate the water quality, critical plant and animal life is endangered as is the agency of citizens, especially vulnerable communities as they lose access to clean water bodies and the decisions around its courses. The tree is built around the citizen’s stories gathered over the years through the deep and pioneering research and documentation conducted by Jaladarsha Collective, mapping sustainable flows and their relationship to the communities connected to it.

Curator's Note

A visit to Jaladarsha’s exhibition created around their research on Kolkata’s disappearing canals sparked an intention to create an installation based on the citizen’s audit of the canals that documents the historical and cultural relationship between the city and its canals. When Novotel invited us to create a thematic Christmas tree for the season that was symbolic of their commitment to sustainable management of natural resources in the daily and strategic operations of our hotels, we thought that this was an opportunity to bring this intention to life. The tree was designed as an upwardly ascending painted labyrinth ready to receive visitors inside it with contemporary patachitra style paintings on water, its lives, flora, fauna and human communities, and hidden stories inside the labyrinth that only become visible when we engage with what is not in our face, the quiet resilience of communities. It was a slow and collaborative experience working with the famed bamboo artisans of Chitpur designing and executing the complex geometry of the labyrinthine shape.