Bhubaneswar: The old and barren boundary walls of a playground at Shanti Nagar here have been transformed into colourful curtains with murals and animations as a part of the Smart City initiative.
Artist Pinaki Mohanty and team used their paint brushes to change the minds of communities there, beautifying the city altogether. “It is one of our attempts to make this place cleaner,” said Sujit Mahapatra, founder of Bakul Foundation, involved in the project.
This is a huge playground where children play and the paintings have been themed accordingly. “We wanted to make it attractive but thought of using this as an opportunity to spread awareness on women empowerment, gender equality, education, child labour and cleanliness,” he added.
He said what really makes it a success is the fact that people from across the state wish to transform their cities like Bhubaneswar. “Indian biker Esha Gupta, who had to come to the city a few months ago, called me and said she wants to paint the walls in Lucknow on the same lines,” said Sujit.
However, this was not the first wall painting in the state capital. While driving across NH-5, one can see flyovers coloured and sketched on different themes. These were done as a part of the initiative STAMP- Street Art in Mural Project by Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bakul.
Jaydev Vihar flyover depicts sports since Kalinga Stadium is situated there and Rajmahal Square, being a market place, has its flyover painted with murals showing vendors. Likewise, Acharya Vihar flyover is painted with birds and the one at Vani Vihar stands out with contemporary art and portraits.
Bakul had also got the walls of Capital School painted by some local artists. In association with East Coast Railway, in 2016, they had transformed platform No. 6 from dull and boring to bright and attractive.
BMC and Bakul also came together to paint all public toilets for creating awareness on the importance of using them. Sujit said they kept it subtle and used cinema and popular cultures to show why open defecation was bad.
Before the Hockey World Cup this year, we can expect more artistic walls in the city.
