In 2007 November, I met a tall smart looking guy, though a
little on the plump side, at Partapur, District Baswada, Rajasthan where I had
gone to meet my friends doing Sandarbh Artists workshop led by none other than
the bad boy of Indian contemporary art, Chintan Upadhyay. This guy was wearing a
pair of dark goggles and a bandana around his head so I could not make out his
real personality. If he had a few tattoos on, I would have taken him for a
Harley Davison biker on the desert roads of Rajasthan. I thought he was looking
at me from behind his dark glasses, which had made me a bit uncomfortable in
the presence of my wife and a couple of girl friends present there. Finally
nicotine called truce between us. On the way to check out a site to do some
site specific work I asked him a cigarette. He was more than willing to offer
me one. That was how we connected, Somu Desai and me.
(UAF Preview at Zero Kilometer, Pardi)
I was so impressed by his forthrightness, energy and
ambition to do things that I came back and wrote a piece on his character where
I tried to contain him behind a disguise, Moon D. Moon in Gujarati, Somu’s
mother tongue, is Somu and D is Desai. My piece on Moon D had aroused a lot of
guess works but I was reluctant to reveal the person behind the disguise till
Somu himself was prepared to come out and face the art scene in India. Today, I
am writing a blog again on Somu Desai. I feel that if I don’t write this I
would be doing a great injustice to my friend and his verve in doing things for
his own village, Pardi near the industrial town in Vapi in Gujarat, bordering Maharashtra.
Pardi is geographically located near Daman and Sylvasa, the Union Territories. This blog is an appreciation of Somu’s efforts
to bring the small town artists in the mainstream and his meaningful
engagements with the local audience community. During the last five years Somu
has been successful in attaining both the goals.
(A New Audience Community at Zero Kilometer, Pardi)
When I took the charge of United Art Fair, both Somu and
Chintan came around and said this much: “Go ahead, we are with you.” In a
scenario where artists are swayed by the mood swings of gallerists, such an
assurance coming from artists like them was really invigorating and
rejuvenating. Chintan, the bad boy of Indian contemporary art (there are two
reasons for him being called so: One, his school master used to call him ‘bad
boy’ for his ‘good’ behaviour in class. Two, he always feels that he is in a
subversive mood and subversion is not always deemed as ‘good’ behaviour) always
thought that something like the UAF was always needed in our scene. If I am in
a thanksgiving mode I need to mention a lot of names here but I am restricting
myself with these two artists because it is all about Somu Desai’s efforts to
bring an otherwise neglected area like Pardi into the mainstream art scene in
India.
(Somu's Studio- now a gallery in Pardi)
On the same night, it was moonlit and cold, a Sardarji doing
timber business and living in Partapur gave the Sandarbh members a party. Firewood
cracked and the faces that came around it glowed. The whiskey glasses were
filled and emptied in regular intervals. Somu stood near me and I found he was
not drinking. Nor was he eating non-vegetarian food. His huge frame looked
distinct as he abstained from both. Above all he was/is a bachelor. If at all
you called smoking a vice, he had that. Timber was stocked in the shed nearby
where we stood. Some touched one of the timbers and asked did I know what wood
it was. Clueless as in the case of many things, I looked at him and smiled. He said
it is saal and it came from a place called Sylvasa, near his home. I did not
know then that I was going to spend many nights in the Sylvasa forest resorts
with many of my artist friends in the days to come. And it did happen in the
years that followed.
(Somu Desai amongst the Viewers)
Zero Kilometer is the name of Somu’s studio in Pardi.
Initially I was involved in the establishment of it. But distance and
involvement was preventing me from going fulltime on this venture. I asked Somu
to continue with his passion and he kindly relieved me of my responsibility.
Today, Zero Kilometer is a hub for the artists in Pardi, Vapi and Amalsad. Even
artists from Mumbai and Baroda visit Somu in his studio. The story of
establishing this studio is magical and realist. Somu is a problem solver and
he has proved that if there is a will one could convert anything and everything
into a studio.
(The gallery view at Zero Km studios)
Zero Kilometer started off as a residency program. Somu’s
idea was to bring artists from all over India (later ambitions grew and the
parameters became global and today Somu is a founding partner of Ceagel Artists
Residency Program in Scotland with artist Lynn Macneze Beckett and he travels
every year to conduct workshops there in England and Scotland) so that the
local artists get a flavour of the pan-Indian art. Somu biked around his village
and found a dilapidated housing complex near the Pardi Railway station. After
talking to the owner of the building, he took possession of a floor and
converted it into a studio and Sukesan Kanka was the first residency artist.
Sukesan’s stay in Pardi attracted more artists to Somu studio and slowly it
became a hub and Somu wanted a bigger space for his studio. He found out
another dilapidated structure near the railway track and converted it into a
studio. Around six artists from the region started working there with Somu and
he introduced them to Delhi and Mumbai art scene through potential friends and
gallerists.
(That broken wall is the door to Somu's office)
Somu is like Bob the builder. He asks his friends, Can we
fix it and they say yes we can. Then he goes ahead. Whenever I have something
to organize the first name comes to my mind is Somu. Anything and everything becomes
handy in Somu’s hands. For example, when Chintan wanted to store his huge
sculptures, Somu just pitched in and said he could do it. What he did was to go
around and meet a few farmers in the area who had huge sheds that were used
only during the mango harvesting time. Rest of the year these sheds were lying
vacant. Now Somu says that Pardi could handle any kind of art work both in
making and storing. The best example is the present studio where Somu has done
the preview of the works that he and his nine fellow artists did for the United
Art Fair.
(Enthusiastic viewers)
The gallery that you see in the pictures was the storage of
Somu’s studio, which was later converted into individual studios for the Zero
Kilometer artists. This section with no such state of the art facilities was
converted into a temporary but decent looking gallery, according to Somu, just
spending a few thousands of Rupees. Some plywood was lying there from huge
crates that brought Chintan’s sculptures. The plywood was cannibalized to make
walls and local choona was used for painting the wall. No special light was
available so Somu brought some tube lights. Some carpets were brought from the
local pandal guy. Sofas were arranged from home. Food was locally prepared by
friends and there was Karoke booth for enjoyment. What more do you need for an
exhibition opening.
(From the Display at Zero Km)
As you see in the picture, the people who came to see the
exhibition are not the up class freeloaders whom we bump into in the urban
galleries. These people are sincere and encouraging. They may not be buying
works of art but they could now appreciate what their children would do if they
choose to become artists. Artists who take a degree in fine arts only to become
a part of the textile or stone cutting industry from this region could now
think a different future for themselves. Their parents could also take pride in
their works. According to Somu, the local industrialists have already taken
interest in artistic activities in the Zero kilometre. At the same time he says
that he is surprised to see that the local people’s interest even in the nude
paintings. “They did not show any disinclination to my works that show my own
nudes,” says Somu.
(A Video work at Zero Km)
K.G.Subramanyan once said that what we deem as the local is
the real global when it comes to anything. If so, Somu’s experimentation in
Pardi is really a global art activity. Without intellectual arrogance and
jargon infested posturing, Somu could develop a local studio where artists could
work, exhibit and interact with a new local audience community. Interestingly,
Somu does not wait for the funding agencies to fund him. He is Bob the builder.
He shows that together we could do many things.
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