This project examines the complex relationship between the urban environments, city development programmes, those who plan / build infrastructure / analyzers / advisors and the public. The artwork evolves from the process of dialogical interaction itself.

The work is visualised through the cartographies of two major parallel roads in Delhi – Kasturba Gandhi Marg and Barakhamba Road. The former has old trees on both sides along it, with people using the shady spaces below the trees for various activities, to sit, relax, wait, meet or to have water and fast food at stalls existing for many years; the latter is without any greenery and fated to tall affluent business centers and high-rise corporate towers replacing its historic buildings. According to researchers, more than 100, nearly a century old trees, were cut off by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to accommodate Metro construction work. While the Metro is an urgent civic necessity and has significantly eased the transportation struggles of a large mass of daily commuters, it is critical that the effect of such concretisation on the local ecology be continually taken into account by urban planners and city developers. Despite DMRC’s attempts to replant trees on Barakhamba Road or elsewhere, the question which needs to be addressed is – whether the way policy of re-plantation is implemented is environmentally beneficial to the area / city.

The project draws upon the artist’s interaction with people who work in high-rise offices on Barakhamba road architects / scientists / economists / social activists /environmentalists and concerned citizens from differentfields; people who wait in parking lots or on the street /by lanes for their employers during the day; people who provide services for the second group; people who commute by Metro and use pedestrian routes; people like planners, contractors, government officials, involved in creating and maintaining infrastructure; and urban development analyzers of the course that urban design and architecture is taking in Delhi today, and the effects of such ‘growth’ on communities and localities. The perspectives of each group on this mode of ‘development’ are documented.

The process-oriented artwork evolves and is rendered with the assistance and input of, artist’s collaborator and interested participants or architectural teams from Delhi’s Urban Research Group, who have been researching on the issue for some time.

A two-channel video titled ‘B A R A K H A M B A’ based on Documentation of the process of dialogical interaction /people’s contribution /shared experiences and visions, is meant to be projected on two large screens at Barakhamba Road itself between the 12th and 21st Dec 2008.

For the third screen – artist further invites the participants, (who are now the viewers) whose contribution has been integral to the process, for a dialogue / critical understanding / approach to ‘Public Art’.