Luzinterruptus at Mumbai Urban Art Festival

The Mumbai Urban Art Festival is an event organised by St+Art India with the support of Asian Paints. The mission of the three-month festival, which closed on 23 February 2023, is to make art accessible to a highly various public, eliminating the formality of conventional spaces for art and bringing together a plethora of different artists and professionals. Interdisciplinary projects including wall paintings, experiential exhibitions, immersive installations and a variety of programming in various different parts of the city offered an opportunity to rediscover little-known routes and forgotten stories in the seaside metropolis. The presence of works designed for people with disabilities, representation of the LGBTQIA+ community, catalogues in braille and initiatives for stray animals gave the Mumbai Urban Art Festival a focus on inclusiveness, ensuring the accessibility of art in all its many forms, because people can easily become overwhelmed when visiting the usual places of art, such as museums and galleries.
The installation "The Plastic We Live With“ by Spanish artistic collective Luzinterruptus is definitely one of these universally accessible works. With the support of the Mumbai Port Authority, Spectrum Impact and the Embassy of Spain, the installation was set up in Evelyn House, an Art Deco building in Colaba, a lively part of the city by the sea, with a beautiful waterfront walkway. The goal was to encourage broader conversation about Mumbai’s relationship with waste and recycling, reflecting on urbanisation and over-consumption. According to the artists: „We wanted to graphically show the excess of plastic that is around us, a recurring issue in our work and in life, since almost everything we consume is made of it or wrapped in it or we eat it in the tiny particles found in meat and fish, not to mention the fact that it is also in the air we breathe.“
How to convey the idea that we must reduce our use of plastic, especially in the „disposable“ products that end up polluting every corner of our planet, as revealed by the huge islands of plastic floating in our oceans? An emblematic product is the plastic bag, which is, fortunately, increasingly being replaced by alternative, reusable solutions such as cloth bags or bags made of renewable materials such as paper. Many countries, including India, have now banned plastic bags. The bags required to complete the installation were collected following a public announcement by the Mumbai First team, leading to donation of more than 8,000 bags by neighbours and local businesses. Unlike European plastic bags, Indian ones are not printed, limiting the range of colours available. Far from viewing this as a limitation, the artists realised this could give their work a more sober, "organic" look than past installations such as the one in Bordeaux (link).
The bags were assembled on the façade of the Evelyn Guesthouse, filling in the gaps in its walls to produce the effect of a building overflowing with plastic. The effect is particularly dramatic at night, thanks to the lighting for the Light Night Colaba event, but is also high-impact during the day.
We can only agree with what the Spanish embassy has to say about "The Plastic We Live With“ at the Mumbai Urban Art Festival: „ The work of Luzinterruptus is an artistic expression of our commitment with the need to face environmental issues globally. Art is indeed a useful means to connect people with issues affecting our surroundings. It is important to continue supporting the cultural players who contribute through their work to the improvement of our societies..“

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Luzinterruptus
Location: Mumbai, India
Year: 2023
Images: Melisa Hernández