Kochi Paints its Protest

Kochi, the happening art centre in Kerala witnessed artists coming in numbers to express their solidarity with the agitating artists in Baroda. A report from Kochi.

Artists and art lovers came in full force in Kochi where the protest meet against the Right Fundamentalists was organized by the Kochi based artists. The meet was conducted at the Kashi Art Café, Mattanchery. Though the prescribed time was 6 pm by 3 O’clock in the afternoon itself artists from different parts of Kochi came to Kashi Art Café. Artists and art lovers came even from the neighbouring districts like Thrissur, Alappuzha, Malappuram and so on.

White corrugated sheets were fixed on the walls of the café along with the large format photocopies of the articles published on various media on the Baroda issue. Kashi Café and Kashi Art Gallery director Dorrie Younger said that the articles appeared were really a window to the Baroda issue and she said that all those articles were printed out and photocopied and fixed on the walls of the café.

Kochi showed a different style in protest. The organizers provided the artists and other people who came there with painting materials and most of them expressed their protest by painting, making graffiti and writing slogans on the white sheets. A lot of foreigners, children and students came to participate in the protest. The media also came in full force to cover the event.

A petition was signed by all the people who visited the protest site. This petition would be sent to the President of India this week, said Rajan M Krishnan, the painter who spearheaded the agitation in Kochi. Rajan told that a massive poster exhibition would be organized in Kochi by next month so that the national artists also could join their hands with the Kerala artists in this protest.