The Special Project Space at Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum has been transformed into a makeshift train compartment. As you enter, Warli paintings mapping the circulatory journey of a person from their village to the city and back home, welcomes visitors. Multiple screens on the walls of the room are playing diverse stories of such people in endless loops. One of these video installations features Anil Jadhav who is excited to give viewers a sneak peek into his village Ukshi in Ratnagiri. He narrates how his home is an abode that unites all the family members. On another screen, a voiceover describes how the railways have made it possible for thousands of people to travel frequently from Mumbai to Ratnagiri, their hometown to spend some quality time with their relatives and stay close to their roots. A third screen captures the story of the Tiwari family, residents of Shivaji Nagar, who are moving into their new home a few blocks away from their earlier residence. The ladies of the house smile at the camera and share how this entire journey has been a dream come true for them. The work on display is part of Mumbai Return: Journeys Beyondthe City, an ongoing showcase based on research done byUrbz (an experimental urban collective based in Mumbai) and Mobile Lives Forum (a Paris-based think tank).
Home and back
The show depicts the circulatory journey of urban families between their neighbourhoods in Mumbai and their villages in the Konkan belt. It explores the relationship between the urban and the rural through traditional artistic renderings, architectural drawings of vernacular houses and settlements, portraits of families and model homes made by contemporary artisans. Plus, there’s also a range of interactive digital installations and videos. Founders of Urbz, Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava, started questioning this link while working in Mumbai localities such as Shivaji Nagar, Bhandup, Naigoan and Dharavi. They were intrigued by how Mumbaikars continuously returned to their ancestral villages for visits. It was clear that a detour to the village was essential to understand the inner workings of the city. The knowledge of the railways as being a unique institution in terms of its reach and affordability added to the line of questions, followed by a rereading of the history of migration in India.
The exhibition has been divided into four sections. The first comprises Instagram photos; short videos shot by the migrants; and layout plans of their houses in the villages of Konkan. Another segment chronicles their journey from the village to the city and how it has become easier over the years due to the railways and the advent of technology. The last two sections depict how migrants build their home away from home once they move to Mumbai. “Our work which we had done for four years with a focus on the Circulatory Lives theme was getting some attention in forums and spaces outside the research, policy-driven and architectural academy that we normally engage with,” says Echanove adding that the exhibition was a great opportunity to bring all their research together in a context that was so embedded in the city and the region. Especially since Mumbai and had people who visited the space from a variety of backgrounds, including those with whom we worked with closely. “All this prompted us to draw from our work and assemble it especially for this particular space,” he says.
Though they have explored the concept of “circulatory lives” in their previous exhibitions in Bordeaux and Geneva, Urbz maintains that this show is widely different from what they have done before. “Mumbai Return is on a much bigger scale and covers more ground then the two previous exhibitions on the theme,” says Srivastava. “In our previous exhibitions, we [tried] to figure out if [circulatory lives] was also relevant to people in Europe. We asked the public if they too lived across more than one place, and we were amazed to see that a concept that we developed to reflect India’s contemporary condition was also relevant in Europe.” The ongoing show’s connection between the public and the topic of circulatory movements is immediate.
Everlasting connections
The duo also discovered a lot of new aspects about the urban-rural relationship while working on this project. “Even after staying for two or three generations in Mumbai, families in the city have maintained well-developed and extensive relationships back in the village,” says Echanove. “We didn’t expect to discover such stories when we embarked on this research five years ago. Most urban practitioners are conditioned to believe that rural-urban migration is a one-way street.” The duo also realised that the younger generation has an emotional connect to their ancestral villages. Some of the younger people they followed during their ethnographic study revealed there’s attachment to both the city and their hometowns for different reasons. “They don’t want the village to become the city,” adds Echanove. “The distance is part of what allows both places to retain specific qualities.”
The migrants were using their personal experiences to contribute towards the betterment of their ancestral villages. Srivastava cites an example where a village had piped water supply from a centralised well, inspired by urban living. “This was constructed by a ‘Mumbai-return’ family,” he says adding that Mumbai-style flats have been cropping up in the hamlet. Villages, it seemed then have been increasingly becoming part of the urban realm. And yet they have managed to preserve a different relationship with the environment.
Mumbai Return: Journeys Beyond the City is ongoing at the Special Project Space, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum till August 13.