Eiffel Tower, bags made of books adorn fair
7 Feb 2013 6:47 AM IST
A treat to bibliophiles, the World Book Fair has much more to offer, with the event hosting a first-of-its-kind ‘Book art installations’ in the city. Several artists have worked around five installations that have been fashioned out of books.
While one resembles the Eiffel Tower of Paris, another has been designed like a light bulb while yet another has been made to look like a bird’s nest.
Behind the installations is a team of six students from the College of Art including Sugandha Gaur, Saroj Kumar Das, Daljeet Singh, Rinku Chauhan , Rahul Gautam and Abhijit Saikia under the guidance of Kumar Vikram of the National Book Trust, who is the mastermind behind the project.
‘We needed some thing different and innovative this time to mark the transition of the fair from a bi-annual event to an annual one and thought of book art installations,” Vikram who is Project in-charge, Innovation and Research, Trust, NBT said.
Vikram mentions international book art fairs like the ones in Italy, South Korea, Italy and Romania among others where book has come to be a focus for many artists around the world. Some artists have taken pages of old books and fashioned them into pieces of art that take months to make.
Other artists stack up hundreds of books to create objects of art.‘We have taken inspiration of various international book art fairs including the ones in south Korea, Italy, Romania among others.
This attempt will also bring the art in limelight which is yet to be explored in India,’ he said.
A 17-feet outdoor installation Light of Life and another The Imaginative School Bag, which has been shaped like a schoolbag fitted with lights are popular.
‘So far, we have seen that art in books have been limited to creative book covers and may be centre spreads. But when NBT approached our college with this idea we came up with the concept of book murals which in our further brain storming sessions developed into book art installations,’ said Sugandha Gaur, a Fine Arts research scholar at Delhi University.
Another student, Daljeet Singh, points out that though the concept of book art installations is not very popular in India it is bound to become so after the Book Fair.
‘From trees to gigantic light bulbs and even a miniature Eiffel Tower all made up of books and wire are attracting more visitors in the pavilion,’ said Singh.
Another student artist Rinku Chauhan says till now creativity of displaying books has been limited to bookshelves.
‘Such sort of display involves very less creativity and has become mundane over the years. This concept of book art can even catch up in libraries provided the installations are made user friendly,’ says Chauhan.The book art installations will be on display till 10 February.
FOLK MUSIC, DANCE ADD COLOUR
A festival of folk music, dance and drama here is complementing the World Book Fair whose theme this year focuses on indigenous voices mapping the country's folk and tribal literature. The programme titled Desraj: An invitation to the indigenous performing arts of India presents some 30 different folk and tribal groups from across the country speaking about life experience of disparate communities through indigenous dance, drama and music. On the second day of festival, which opened on 4 February, artistes from Kerala, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand performed in Lal Chowk open air theatre of Pragati Maidan here. Artistes from Delhi Panchavadya trust performed Naada Samanwayam, a folk presentation from Kerala. It was followed by ritual enactment of the legend of the creation of the world, Lai Haraoba a folk dance by Huyen Lallong, Manipur.
While one resembles the Eiffel Tower of Paris, another has been designed like a light bulb while yet another has been made to look like a bird’s nest.
Behind the installations is a team of six students from the College of Art including Sugandha Gaur, Saroj Kumar Das, Daljeet Singh, Rinku Chauhan , Rahul Gautam and Abhijit Saikia under the guidance of Kumar Vikram of the National Book Trust, who is the mastermind behind the project.
‘We needed some thing different and innovative this time to mark the transition of the fair from a bi-annual event to an annual one and thought of book art installations,” Vikram who is Project in-charge, Innovation and Research, Trust, NBT said.
Vikram mentions international book art fairs like the ones in Italy, South Korea, Italy and Romania among others where book has come to be a focus for many artists around the world. Some artists have taken pages of old books and fashioned them into pieces of art that take months to make.
Other artists stack up hundreds of books to create objects of art.‘We have taken inspiration of various international book art fairs including the ones in south Korea, Italy, Romania among others.
This attempt will also bring the art in limelight which is yet to be explored in India,’ he said.
A 17-feet outdoor installation Light of Life and another The Imaginative School Bag, which has been shaped like a schoolbag fitted with lights are popular.
‘So far, we have seen that art in books have been limited to creative book covers and may be centre spreads. But when NBT approached our college with this idea we came up with the concept of book murals which in our further brain storming sessions developed into book art installations,’ said Sugandha Gaur, a Fine Arts research scholar at Delhi University.
Another student, Daljeet Singh, points out that though the concept of book art installations is not very popular in India it is bound to become so after the Book Fair.
‘From trees to gigantic light bulbs and even a miniature Eiffel Tower all made up of books and wire are attracting more visitors in the pavilion,’ said Singh.
Another student artist Rinku Chauhan says till now creativity of displaying books has been limited to bookshelves.
‘Such sort of display involves very less creativity and has become mundane over the years. This concept of book art can even catch up in libraries provided the installations are made user friendly,’ says Chauhan.The book art installations will be on display till 10 February.
FOLK MUSIC, DANCE ADD COLOUR
A festival of folk music, dance and drama here is complementing the World Book Fair whose theme this year focuses on indigenous voices mapping the country's folk and tribal literature. The programme titled Desraj: An invitation to the indigenous performing arts of India presents some 30 different folk and tribal groups from across the country speaking about life experience of disparate communities through indigenous dance, drama and music. On the second day of festival, which opened on 4 February, artistes from Kerala, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand performed in Lal Chowk open air theatre of Pragati Maidan here. Artistes from Delhi Panchavadya trust performed Naada Samanwayam, a folk presentation from Kerala. It was followed by ritual enactment of the legend of the creation of the world, Lai Haraoba a folk dance by Huyen Lallong, Manipur.
Next Story
