In a city that's jostling for space, two youngsters make an effort to redefine the concept altogether, one chalk circle at a time
The box as spotted on a Powai footpath in Hiranandani (right) the message in the box explains the essence of the project
Two art students in the city have kick-started a global campaign that urges people to rethink the concept of space. Under the Instagram handle, 'markyourspace', Ayushi Shriramwar and Salik Ansari have initiated, what they call a "social collaboration" where people are required to literally mark their space, with a chalk.
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Explaining the concept, Ansari, who is doing his masters from Industrial Design Centre, IIT-Bombay, says, "We place a small cardboard box, the size of a black-board chalk in public spaces. It has a small note inside with a message addressing the person, asking them to draw a line around themselves — the idea being that, that piece of land, which is essentially your physical form, is now free from the concept of a nation." The note also asks one to place the box in another spot, left to be rediscovered. "That way, it can start a chain reaction," adds the 25-year-old.
Ayushi Shriramwar and Salik Ansari mark their space
While the concept is largely rooted in abstraction, the factors that have spurred it are "disturbingly real". "Look at the political situation around the world and in our own country. Xenophobia has become a scary truth and we felt the need offer another line of thought. A space that is free from the boundaries of nation. Also, space is not necessarily externally limited. It is something you carry inside you," says Shriramwar, a fourth-year student at Sir JJ School of Arts.
The campaign is less than two weeks old, but they have already reached out to friends in New York and London, where it appears to have gathered steam, with people sharing photos of their marked spaces on Instagram. "They are more tech-savvy there; and moreover, Instagram user-base is larger in those countries," Shriramwar says, adding that the boxes were placed in Manhattan, Times Square and Brooklyn Bridge in New York, and in London and Canterbury in the UK. In Mumbai, the first box was placed at the Hiranandani Galleria food court. "Initially, it was not working. A man came and picked it up, put it in his pocket and left. We don't know what he did with it," she recalls.
The duo reckons that at that point the message was not clear enough. "I think we had crammed too many thoughts in one note. Then we fine-tuned it and focused on the thought of liberating a spot from the idea of a nation. The challenge is to have a message that moves a person enough for them to act and then continue the chain," Ansari says, adding that he did observe one girl drawing a line around herself and then placing the box in another spot.
While earlier they would place the boxes and linger around to gauge people's reactions, they have stopped doing that now. The project is also about observing what space means to different people. "In New York, for instance, that is seeing a lot of immigrant crisis, people were quite moved by the concept. Here, in Mumbai, however, space is a different beast altogether, because there is never enough of it," Shriramwar says.
Currently, they have plans of placing more boxes in Lower Parel, Dadar, CST and Fort. "We want the project to take a life of its own. We cannot monitor people's reactions, but we can ensure to keep this going for at least a year. Consistency is key when you aim for greater change," Ansari signs off.
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