Public art project on the Yamuna riverbanks

The sewage-filled, fetid and filthy Yamuna River is perhaps the most unlikely backdrop for a major art installation. However, ambitious organizers of the unconventional ‘Project Y’ had a hope that their works would attract art lovers who seldom venture onto its banks and in the process, draw attention to the problem of chronic pollution of a dirty river worshiped as holy and sacred by devotees.

They succeeded to an extent. A news report by Gareth Conde of The Associated Press elaborated: The public art project, with works by Indian and Germans artist, aimed to generate awareness of the sorry state of the holy Yamuna by linking it with far cleaner and purer Elbe in Germany, where a similar exhibit was mounted.

“Everyone knows the river is polluted, but I wish to re-awaken the idea of ecology for it. We wish people to come and check for themselves what the river is all about," stated, a co-curator of this unique public art project, Ravi Agarwal. So just near the Loha Pul Bridge, where local people wash clothes, floated a sculpture of the female form below the waist. Its legs trapped the river's bounty: marigold garlands thrown in it by worshipers, a pig carcass and discarded plastic bottles.

Among other installations were Gigi Searia's ‘Fountain of Purification’ that pumped water from the river through five different levels of a tower before spurting out ‘pure water’ from the top. Even the clear and purified water was putrid. Asim Waqif installed a longish stretch of plastic bottles right down the middle of the river that expressed anger of the river goddess at the pollution. She was anyways never ever supposed to gulp sewage.

A few curious onlookers did wander the banks to view the artworks; organizers estimated about 150 to 200 of them dropped in every day, suggesting still more awareness was required about the menace of pollution.