Shiva Pathak

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Project 560, will try to reclaim neglected urban spaces in Bangalore through community-driven art interventions, fostering safer, more accessible streets and enhancing social cohesion through creativity and participatory art practices. Shiva Pathak is the Project Coordinator for this project. 

Shiva Pathak is a multidisciplinary arts professional with over two decades of experience. She did her BA in Psychology from Lady Shri Ram College, where she was involved in theatre, followed by an MA in Communications and PR from Mt Carmel College, Bangalore. She later earned a Master's in Social Work from TISS, Mumbai. After early work in social organisations, Shiva shifted to the arts and co-founded Sandbox Collective in 2013, a women-led organisation at the intersection of art and gender. Through Sandbox, she has taken on multiple roles, including curator, creative producer, and presenter of performances and arts festivals. Shiva's most recent recognition came in 2022 when she was awarded the prestigious Goethe Medal for her contributions to cultural exchange between India and Germany. She has worked with leading arts organisations like Ranga Shankara, British Council, and coordinated multiple editions of the Attakkalari India Biennial, South Asia’s largest contemporary dance festival. She is also an educator, teaching Theatre Studies at St Joseph's College in Bangalore. Given her experience, Shiva Pathak is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA. 

The project titled Mori Daatidha Veera will be a community-driven initiative that will seek to reclaim underutilised and neglected spaces in the Maruthi Sevanagar area of Bangalore. As the city continues to grapple with rapid urbanisation, the growing numbers of vehicles and shrinking public spaces have created numerous challenges for pedestrians, especially vulnerable groups like the elderly, children, and people with mobility issues. The project will focus on transforming overlooked areas, such as street corners, debris-filled walkways, and footpaths occupied by parked cars, into safe and vibrant community spaces. These spaces currently act as barriers rather than connectors within the neighbourhood. Through tactical and artistic interventions, the project will aim to improve physical, social, and psychological safety by reclaiming the streets for the community. The ultimate goal is to activate these spaces in ways that will encourage interaction, creativity, and a sense of ownership among the local residents. 

The artistic process would involve participatory approach with local artists and community members in both the planning and execution phases. Initial workshops will gather stories, memories, and insights from residents about their experiences with the neighbourhood’s streets and spaces. These stories will be used to inform the artistic interventions, ensuring that the artwork will reflect the community's needs and aspirations. Artists will work on various segments of the streets, using mediums like poetry, drawings, and installations to bring the stories of the neighbourhood to life. One key element is the creation of an audio experience where residents and visitors can follow the mock-epic fictional ‘warrior’ character, Mori Daatidha Veera, on a journey through the reimagined streets. The audio walk will incorporate the collected stories, making it both an interactive and immersive experience.

The final phase of the project will culminate in a public exhibition and discussion, showcasing the outcomes of the interventions. This exhibition will feature artwork, photographs, and video documentation of the entire process, giving the community an opportunity to reflect on the changes. In addition to fostering creativity and engagement, the project will also aim to make practical improvements, such as clearing debris, restricting the parking of vehicles on footpaths, and installing benches and small gardens to enhance both safety and aesthetics. Evaluation sessions with community members will be conducted to assess the project’s impact and discuss long-term sustainability for maintaining the transformed spaces. By integrating art and community collaboration, Mori Daatidha Veera hopes to inspire similar efforts in other urban neighbourhoods, creating a replicable model for reclaiming public spaces across Indian cities.  

The outcomes of the project would be participatory art experiences, aggregation of urban local stories in the forms of poetry, drawings, installations, and audio walks, photographs, and video documentation that will culminate in an immersive exhibition. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be audio-visual documentation of the artistic process.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Project 560 programme in the manner in which it attempts to address degraded urban spaces as well as administrative neglect in Bangalore, through promoting inclusivity and safety while empowering residents to reclaim public spaces, fostering community engagement and dialogue in the face of rapid urbanisation, by bringing art closer to civic life, thus energising the city through the trope of participatory art.  

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

This project is made possible with support from BNP Paribas India Foundation.