Share stories of your neighbourhood

A curatorial project is inviting submissions to celebrate migration and diversity

A project is inviting Bengalureans to share stories of their neigbourhood — why they made it home, things they moved in with, experience of assimilating with different cultures.

These stories and personal archives will be put up for viewing and engagement from November 26 to December 4 at the upcoming BLR Design Week.

Simply called Neighbourhood Histories of Bengaluru, it is an initiative by Curating for Culture, a collective of diverse professionals like designers, artists, social scientists and ecologists.

Ishita Shah, who’s curating the project, says this idea sprung from a discussion on “identification and the need to belong to a place”, a topic, she feels, comes up often in cosmopolitan cities like Bengaluru and Mumbai. “I moved to Bengaluru from Ahmedabad six years ago. I live in Vidyaranyapura,” the interior designer, architect and historian cites an example.

Bitterness against migrants is a global issue and the project aims to shift the way we look at migration. “Some may have come to a neighbourhood a generation ago, and some, 10 years ago. This makes our cities culturally diverse. We must celebrate that,” she says.

People can share stories of why their families moved into a certain locality — good or sad memories, everything is welcome. Or, contribute the bus ticket they bought to get there, the trunks they carried, photos and memorabilia from their early days. The exhibition will be put up at a metro station to further the narrative on mobility.

“(Studying) neighbourhood stories can become a way to reimagine how we design our city infrastructure. People from different cultures come to auditoriums to celebrate art and music. Can we start building more such public spaces?” she explains.

The aim is also to encourage families to value personal archives and preserve them at home or pass them to museums.

In addition to the exhibition, they will hold two workshops enabling archival practices, and three open dialogues to discuss the relationship between personal histories and architecture and city planning.

*Last date to submit is November 20. Write to [e-mail]