Artefacting Public Art + Research Practice

• About The Project
• About Dharavi

About Dharavi

“Dharavi materializes human phenomenon… and Art draws from and translates this material.”

About

Often referred to as Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi Mumbai is an organic community and economy that bustles with activity. Recycling industries, leather tanneries, heavy metal work, woodwork, and the manufacturing of garments, shoes, luggage, jewelry, pottery and craftwork all take place within residents’ home fabrication spaces. Those who have never ventured into Dharavi may imagine it as a wasteland of tent-like temporary structures, an immense junkyard crowded with undernourished people completely disconnected from the rest of the world, surviving on charity and pulling the economy backward. Yet beneath the sea of corrugated tin roofs, the reality could hardly be more different. Dharavi is a highly developed urban area composed of distinct neighborhoods and bustling with activity that is integrated socially, economically and culturally at metropolitan, regional and global levels. There is hope, optimism and a strong sense of community amongst Dharavi’s estimated community of 1 million residents that produce an estimated 500 million us dollars.

Originally a fishing village known as Koliwada and isolated from the city center, Mumbai’s urban growth has placed what is now Dharavi within a stone’s throw of the new financial and commercial center, making it a prime piece of real estate potentially worth billions of dollars. For years the government has been pushing forward its’ plans to raze and redevelop Mumbai to realize the economic gains that higher class housing and a new demographic will bring.

However, strong community organization and resistance to the government’s proposed plans, have delayed redevelopment and are pushing forward an alternative ending… one of a locally conceived redevelopment plans that would allow the current residents to remain on this land in habitable spaces compatible with their production needs and carry on their culture, economy and identity. The high-rise towers that developers and government are proposing will make many of the everyday operations and jobs, some traditional to some of the Dharavi people, impossible. Furthermore, a strong vice of the community is saying that these people have what they want and need, and do not want their community replaced with high towers, even when offered economic incentive. (www.Dharavi.org)

Global financial crisis has helped in delaying what seems to be an imminent redevelopment that will capitalize on huge profits waiting to be made. However in the face of a looming makeover, Dharavi exhibits a materialization of human phenomenon that emits essences of positive humanity. Founded and evolved via an embracing of social wealth, community & entrepreneurism, is this not a phenomenon and even model from which the world should learn from and understand?

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