Colourful underpass with social message unveiled at Ecoworld in Bellandur

Bengaluru: Brookfield Properties collaborated with Aravani Art Project to unveil a colourful underpass at Ecoworld, Bellandur, near the Outer Ring Road.

The artwork on the underpass walls features 16 portraits of members of the transgender community, revolving around the theme of diversity and inclusion. The concept of 'Naavu Iddhivi' or 'We Exist' was designed over two months and executed in 45 days by a team of 18 people, including 12 transgender artists trained by the Project, said Poornima Sukumar, founder of Aravani Art Project. 

"The theme was simple and outright; we wanted to create something that visually depicts the message that it is always better together regardless of gender, caste, and religion," Poornima added.

Shantanu Chakraborty, Executive Vice President and Region Head (South) at Brookfield Properties India said, "We wanted to make an otherwise mundane piece of infrastructure meaningful with a social message that highlights the problem of the marginalisation of LGBTQIA+ communities. The idea is to celebrate the community and display powerful art with the overarching principle of inclusivity."

The underpass serves the employees of several offices at Ecoworld, and was constructed with the aim to ease some of the congestion in the area. Over the last three to four months, it has saved office-goers about 10-15 minutes in their commute, said Ronak Pandya, verification engineer at a private software firm inside the campus. However, Bellandur traffic police officers noted that since this was a private undertaking on private land, the traffic spillover onto the Outer Ring Road and the congestion situation on the roads leading to the underpass remained unchanged.