Treetrunks and flyovers. Could there be two things more dissimilar than these? For an artist as innovative as Rahel Hegnauer, there’s no separating them. Trees give way to flyovers in the name of development. If there is one thing that’s more paradoxical than this, it is the flyover itself. Says Rahel. “You call it ‘flyover’ which implies smoothness. But it’s made of such hard elements like concrete, metals and iron rods, which in itself is contradictory.”

She is Swiss and is from Zurich. Bangalore’s development appals her. Not just that it’s sporadic, “it’s mindless,” she feels. How could development be of prime concern to a person brought up in a developed country like Switzerland, one wonders. “There are no flyovers in Switzerland. We have what you call here ‘bridges’,” she says good-naturedly, adding in a tone laced with disbelief, “The population of the entire Switzerland is seven million. Bangalore itself has the same number of people in India.”

Her observation of flyovers and it’s destruction of Bangalore’s landscape midwifed a photo exhibition titled aptly ‘Treetrunks and Flyovers’ at Shanti Gallery recently. It was not a mere exhibition. Rahel invited A N Yellappa Reddy, conservationist and environmentalist, H S Sudhindra from the Directorate of Urban Land Transport and Suresh Jayaram, noted art critic and historian, and played catalyst to a brainstorming session on the issue of development in the city.

The inspiration behind this set of photographs was a small stroll she took along Cooks Town where she was residing for sometime. A treetrunk caught her attention. “It was cut to give way for a flyover. It’s sad to see how development scores above ecology here in the City. I have also seen houses by the flyovers in Bangalore which have their doors opening to the road and this chaos,” Rahel notes in a thick accent.

Rahel has been in Bangalore for over a year now. And she is concerned about the City losing its charm. A student of art, she came to India first during an exchange programme. Apart from Bangalore, she says she has travelled to Delhi and Alleppey. She feels Bangalore has compromised a lot on heritage. “Delhi, on the other hand, has different layers of towns. There are a lot of buildings and monuments of heritage value still kept intact. In Bangalore, I don’t see any old buildings now,” she observes. Talking about her country, she says, the transport system is so well in place there that development is not in the face but that’s not the case here.

Rahel, who was preparing to leave for her hometown a couple of days after the exhibition, says she wants to come back to Bangalore. The City lets her work from one place for any amount of time she stays here.
In Zurich, she gets displaced every now and then. “It’s so common there. This renting one place and moving from there after a few days when you are asked to. The rent is also very high. For an artist to work peacefully, you need a place like Bangalore,” she says. And she loves the people here. “They are so affable,” she says. “In Switzerland, you need a reason to talk to people. Here, people are so warm and inviting.”