Introduction

A city is never really just an assemblage of roads, buildings, parks, markets, and open spaces.  Planners and politicians make the mistake of reducing this complex, interlinked, ever changing web of physical and non-physical entities to abstractions, whether as plans or numbers, but the city is so much more than just abstractions.  Embedded within the physical form are memories and patterns.  Even when the physical environment with all its appurtenances – buildings, parks, streets, shops, trees – changes so drastically as to become unrecognizable, when well-loved spaces, maybe homes that you lived in or visited, vanish from the geography of a place, when all the physical markers that rooted you to a place, disappear, you never really forget them.  They are still present somewhere, sometimes as a lingering memory, sometimes as a deep aching feeling, sometimes as a happy remembrance that still fills you with delight.  

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Intangible heritage

A city acquires a persona and character over time.  Even when the physical form starts disintegrating, the memories that are embedded in it remain strong.  Older neighbourhoods with a history naturally tend to be the repository of many memories, and even when they change beyond recognition, they retain the ability to evoke strong emotions in the residents of the city.  However, with the passing of time, when both the physical entities, and those who hold these memories, pass on, we lose a precious heritage.  And this is an irretrievable loss.

 

A repository of culture

This engagement is an attempt to capture those memories in the area of Malleswaram, a 120 year old and very traditional neighbourhood of Bangalore.  Malleswaram has been the bastion of tradition and culture, and dance and music in the city through the years.    Despite sweeping physical changes and deterioration, it still occupies a special place in the minds and hearts of every old Banglorean.  Even today, people will travel from across the city to this area for their shopping needs, sometimes returning repeatedly to the same vendors who have served them through the years, or to attend cultural programs, or to learn from the vast network of teachers who yet reside here.  

 

Urgency of the exercise

The last two decades have been times of great transformations everywhere in Bangalore, but in older areas like Malleswaram, which have historically had a strong character, the deterioration has been painful to witness.  We know that the problems faced by Malleswaram are neither singular nor as serious as perhaps the sort of problems one finds in many other parts of the city, especially the ones that have sporadically developed in the last decade.  But our shared history reposes in places like Malleswaram, so we must have a gathering urgency to hold on to the little that remains, and to retrieve what has been lost forever.  

 

Retrieving lost memories

In order to conserve this unique identity, one must first recognize it, document it, and then bring attention to it, so that the inheritors and the guardians of this heritage recognize the need to cherish it.  Otherwise, in the hurry to modernize and move on, few have the time or foresight to put effort into this daunting task.  

But how does one go about it?  How does one bring back that which has never been documented, and is lost forever?  How does one access a history that only remains in the minds of those who experienced it?

These questions led us to envisage a workshop where the participants would be residents of Malleswaram and others who might be interested in being part of it.  A combination of exercises such as story-telling, drawing, writing, and recording oral histories, would help create a holistic picture of Malleswaram, and the physical document that we plan to produce at the end of the engagement would thus become a valuable artefact for posterity.

 

The Memory Mapping workshop  

So, the objective of this workshop is to build a collective identity for the neighbourhood using memories and imagination, and looking at ideas of ownership, identity and belonging.  The idea is also to help look at the neighbourhood and its relationship with change, so that it is not just an exercise of historical documentation, but a more dynamic exercise that is rooted in the present.

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Module1: The Projected City of memories and stories

 

1. Going on a locality walk - Route mapping and material collection of socio-cultural, historical assets. Walking and listening to stories, taking pictures and drawing

2. Story collection through the process of listening, with theatre games and exercises.

 

Module 2: The Remembered City of experiences (memories) and imagination (map)

 

A. Going on a locality walk  - Route mapping and material collection of socio-cultural, historical assets. We walk and listen to stories, take pictures and draw.

B. Word Mapping - what does the neighbourhood mean to you 

C. Understanding Mapping - Orientation and Navigation.

D. Creative Mapping 

• Drawing your memories and experiences of the neighbourhood with art material contributed or material brought by the participant

• Contribute a written memory if you don’t want to draw

• Give your completed map a name and a 100 word interpretation

E. Designing the book of Memory Maps

• Stories (memories) juxtaposed with Imagination (experience maps)

 

The outcome from these exercises is a book where memories in the form of maps, text, drawings and videos have been shared.

 

Project Partners

The project was funded by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) under the Project 560 - Neighbourhood Engagement banner. The project was executed by Suchitra Deep (Firm Terra Architects/Malleswaram Social) ; Aliyeh Rizvi (Native Place) and Arzu Mistry (Art in Transit)