Track 2

Imageries of cities: The role of

cultural policies and activism in
self-representations of cities and
citizens
Sushmita Kashyap, MA
Research Student,
Freie Universitt, GeoCampus Berlin (Germany);
Association Mitrajectoires, Lille (France)
sushmita.kashyap3@gmail.com

Reclaiming the Creative City for

women : Two case studies from Delhi.

Linking up the Creative city to the

Right to the city debates
Argument runs counter to R. Florida, whose creative city model
is primarily for the creative class and highly educated elite
(PhD holders) making commodities of cities and creative
practitioners.
Inspired by Lefebvres vision of the city. Attempt to complicate
the theory by trying to apply it to changing cities of the Global
South.
The right to the city (1968) came out in a historical moment of
increased economic prosperity, but one that was exclusionary in
nature.
Indian cities today are experiencing steady growth, with a high
creative potential for innovation and entrepreneurial ventures.
But protracted problems- sexist mindsets have not yet let
everyone, esp. women and certain backward classes, to take full
part in these creative possibilities.

Context: Envisioning the Creative

City?
A City
- where everyone has access to creative, safe, and dynamic medias
to develop her (his) human potential.
- where access to the arts isn't limited to the museums and cultural
institutions. But also as Public art, Public readings, and
Performances.
- which facilitates encounter and exchange.
- which challenges its residents to go out of their homes/
individual comfort zones to engage with their neighbourhoods in
creative ways.
A Creative city is, in this context, the vision and aspiration of the
Right to the City movements globally (Marcuse, 2011).

Performing Gender in Indias Capital

City, Delhi
Delhi and National Capital Region ranks 7th in lowest sex
ratio among states (2011 Census Child Sex ratio- 871).
The state of Haryana, bordering the Capital, claims the
lowest place in the same study.
Outrage after the 2012 Delhi gang rape of Jyoti Singh.
-For the first time, Delhis streets witnessed a massive
outpouring of anguished solidarity and protests in support of
the victim. Many of the movements to reclaim space for
women, including the case studies here, were conceived in
response to this tragedy.

Case Study 1: Gender Ventions

Gender-Ventions a series of public performances that revolve
around the notions of gender, identity and space.

Supported by the Goethe Institut Max Muller Bhavan New

Delhi, GV staged more than 40 interventions across the

National Capital Region between September 2014 and February
2015.

No help from the the Delhi govt or any Indian civic or cultural
institutions.
Law enforcing civic bodies, like police and Metro guards have
shown a mixed reaction, but mostly positive and co-operative.
-(We were chased out by the police at two spots, CP and Inderlok
Metro. Apart from that it was pretty cooperative. -Interviewee A.)

Gender Ventions:
A background on the street
performers
Age group: between 19 -31.
Social class/background:
- 2 performers from Kathputhli (puppet makers) colony, lower
income bracket.
- 3 activist / performers upper income bracket.
- 3 performers from middle income bracket.
(Continued conversations and informal interviews with the
Director of GV, Niranjani Iyer, 2014-now).

Bodies in Public-Private Spaces

Performance method: The group usually acts out three
different vignettes eg., watching TV at home, travelling
by bus, and customer behaviour at a tea shop. In the first
take, narrators ask audience to focus on a male actor. They
act it out again, asking the audience to focus on the female
actor. Spot the differences.
Some questions posed to the spectators (Audience):
How much space physical space do you occupy?
Is there anyone amongst you who likes being restricted?
Where do you feel the most comfortable? At home? Or
anywhere and everywhere?

Some (self) reflections by the

performers
Rhythms and Space
- that some of them have been unconsciously enacting
gender-based performativeness over the years (even when
some of them identified themselves as emancipated,
feminist, etc.)
The aim is not to have a final artistic product, but intervene
towards changing patterns and pushing the envelope:
This project is not about finding solutions. It is about debate.
Our job is to start that discussion women should be able to
say, This is my city. My space.
(Iyer, December 2014).

Some observations
On Public Space:
- Women pass through public spaces, whereas men inhabit
them.
- To work with civic authorities and the residents in creative
ways (non-confrontational and non-hegemonic).
- An important need for artiste-activists-performers to engage
meditatively with the city residents for production of safer,
accessible spaces for women and minorities.
- Consciously try not to re-produce exclusionary creative
city spaces, where mostly cultural producers performed and
circulated, i.e., to engage a larger public the woman on
the street/neighbourhood.

Case study 2
Pinjratod ~Break the Hostel Locks
On their Facebook page, the primary portal for sharing
information, Pinjra Tod, (also based in Delhi) defines itself
as:
an autonomous collective effort to ensure secure, affordable and not
gender-discriminatory accommodation for women students across
Delhi.

Primarily led by college students, women studying in Delhis

public Universities.

Creative ways of protest and

mobilising
Wide use of Visual and Storytelling Methods: Spoken word
poetry, Music, Poster Campaigns, Photographs with poetry
captions, Public workshops (interactive classrooms) with relevant
readings from literature and history.
Cultural events:
- Eg., for International Womens Day- March 8, 2016, #pinjratod
organised an exhibition across colleges on women's struggles in
India.
Countering vocally the commodification of cultural events,
which dont address root causes, or challenge stereotypes.
Use of psychogeographical methods to reclaim important
symbolic public spaces. Eg: Jantar Mantar, Jawarharlal Nehru
University (Freedom Square).
Collaborations with other social movements.

Creative ways of mobilising

Choice of Case studies

Prominent contemporary examples which present how creativity can
become a tool for reclaiming the city for everyone (all citizens):
- Through the medium of street theater (Case study 1),
- Through the medium of eye-catching posters, exhibitions, public
workshops on aspects related to the city and rights (Case study 2).
Movements led and designed by women.
Bottom-up approaches (rhizomatic in nature).
Donot only engage with creative specialists but any person who
identifies with the project and wants to engage in using creative tools
for social transformation.
Trying to re-appropriate space by countering patriarchal limitations on
womens bodies, movement, and circulations in the city (also see
Massey 1994).

.
Spoken word poetry.
Cultural Events, #pinjratod. 2016.
University of Delhi. North Campus.

Public performance, GV. 2014.

LocaJons crisscrossing Delhi, across the Metro
Public transit Map.

Right to the City, #whyloiter campaigns. 2015.

New Delhi streets.

References
Brenner, N., Marcuse, P., Meyer, M. (2011): Cities for People, Not for
Profit: Critical Urban Theory and the Right to the City. London:
Routledge.
Edensor, T., Leslie, D., Millington, S., Rantisi, N. M. (eds.) (2009):
Spaces of Vernacular Creativity: Rethinking the Cultural Economy,
Oxon: Routledge.
Lefebvre, H. (1974/1992): The Production of Space. London: WileyBlackwell.
Lefebvre, H. (1995): Writings on Cities. Edited by E. Kofman and E.
Lebas. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Lefebvre, H., Elden, S., Moore, G (2004): Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time
and Everyday Life. London: Continuum.
Leslie D and Catungal J.P (2012) Social justice and the creative city:
Class, gender, and racial inequalities. Geography Compass 6:111-122
Massey, D. (1994): Space, Place, and Gender. Minnesota: University of
Minnesota Press.

 Thank You for your attention. J

sushmita.kashyap3@gmail.com
@purpledturtle (on Twitter)