from the Washington Post

New Delhi Reclaims Public Space Via Art

Festival Stirs Debate on Growth, Ecology

By Rama Lakshmi

Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, December 21, 2008; Page A23
 

NEW DELHI, Dec. 20 — For the past 10 days, residents of India’s bustling capital have found large and often strange-looking objects along their daily paths: a giant steel bucket mounted on a wooden stand, a tree hanging from a crane, a gasoline can made of white tiles, and stretched nylon resembling the long wing of a bird caught between buildings.

“They say this is art, but I do not see anything special in a bucket,” said Virendra Singh, a stocky policeman on guard near the steel bucket, the creation of celebrated contemporary artist Subodh Gupta. “We all have one in our bathrooms to store water.”

Then he turned to look at the exhibit again. “But this is indeed a very, very big bucket,” he said. “Maybe there is something more to it.”

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