Soul of the santhe

BENGALURU: Artist Ganapathy BP grew up in the bustling and developing city of Bangalore, but somewhere missed, or did not have the time to grasp as much as he’d hoped to about the way people were. He would often listen to stories of his grandparents and parents while staying in RT Nagar and enjoyed the way in which they would interact with the locals.

Now, with his project called Raithara Sante, which is part of IFA Project 560’s Neighbourhood Engagements programme, Ganapathy has worked on engaging with people of Shivanahalli to explore stories around the Raithara Santhe and build a connection to the area’s food culture through artistic interventions. He is working on this with researcher Bennet Doss, and artist Vishnu Nair from the Indian Garbage Collective, who works with junk and turns it into art. 

Over the last few months they have worked with different stakeholders of the Raithara Santhe, from vegetable sellers to the people who manage the santhe. “Our engagements have brought to light what it means to live a life that is in need of constant nurturing. Just as one would spend time looking after plants and flowers in their gardens, each individual that we spoke to at the santhe has their own way of growing their produce, which is also reflected in the way they lead their lives,” says Ganapathy.

After getting each of these individual stories, they set out to create an artwork, encompassing all those they had spoken to. “Vishnu studied and sketched the market and the people of the sante. Then, we translated these sketches onto a larger piece that we could give back to our very own community, a reminder that our creativity came from none other than the samudaya at Santhe,” says Ganapathy, who hopes that their art work will serve as a reminder to those who frequent the space.