Who's in charge of conserving Mumbai's street art?

What can stop murals on Mumbairsquos streets from being painted over Very little it turns outBut the case for preserving these wideopen works of art has only been gaining ground ldquoWhen it is in a public space art is also lsquoownedrsquo by the public because it has its own value It is an equity and landmark in itselfrdquo citybased contemporary artist Sajid Wajid Shaikh points out ldquoThe only way to protect the art is to educate people who are in the vicinityrdquo The value of a property goes up for instance when the British artist Banksy paints on its wallThere are civic benefits to be had too ldquoAfter a mural is painted very rarely do you see spit stains or things like that People get cautious of the wall Somehow a plain wall attracts such misbehaviour more than the painted onerdquo says Mihir Thakkar who conducts street art tours echoing Shaikhrsquos sentiment about the value of the art Murals have a limited lifespan however mdash approximately two years before they start fading due to rain and sunlightSo every two to three years Start India Foundation does touchups depending on the state in which the works are Arjun Bahl cofounder of the notforprofit which aims to cover walls across urban India in art says ldquoWe use the best quality paints and try to prepare the walls properly so that they can at least last for five to seven years Most recently we have also been using a special coat of paint over the walls which gives extra protectionrdquoA sense of community is evident from the fact that more often than not artists refrain from painting over each others work While this is is mainly out of mutual respect the other reason is there are so many walls in Mumbai that there is no need for overlap Especially without due permission Painting over is simply considered lsquonot coolrsquoSajid Wajid Shaikhs mural in Mahim Art District Photo Naman SaraiyaThe mess around Messi These conversations come in the wake of an incident from little over a week ago Two of the most popular Bollywood murals in Bandra had disappeared overnight Created in 2012 by citybased artist Ranjit Dahiya the founder of the Bollywood Art Project BAP the paintings of Madhubala and Anarkali were replaced with the familiar yet outofplace figure of footballer Lionel Messi as a part of a campaign by the popular beer brand Budweiser The campaign celebrates the Argentinian footballerrsquos feat of scoring 644 goals and breaking the Brazilian football great Pelersquos record The new mural was made in collaboration with creative agency Animals and mural artists Wicked Broz Dahiya remained unavailable for commentMany from the art community took to social media to criticise the move While they were okay with another artist painting on city walls the fact that it was used as a platform to advertise even though the logo hasnrsquot appeared anywhere irked them In Delhirsquos Hauz Khas Village murals made in collaboration with Madridbased Okuda San Miguel and MCity were similarly replaced with those of MessiShaikh who has been involved in the Mahim Art District project with Delhibased Start India Foundation says ldquoThere is no law to protect works but there is a subliminal law and understanding that you shouldnrsquot be doing something like thisrdquo He adds ldquoThese murals in Delhi and Bollywood Art Project BAP have their own intrinsic value It is like Picasso painting on your street and someone coming by and pasting a jumbo circus poster on it I think the city has been robbed of something like the BAP murals in the name of publicityrdquo In graffiti culture which has its own rules and regulations he says an act like this would ldquostart like an art warrdquo The war between King Robbo and Banksy from less than a decade ago is an exampleThe brand sought to make amends following the outcry reaching out to StArt Foundation who first brought out the issue on Instagram It also contacted Dahiya for a potential collaboration While the brand did not respond to questions from MidDaycom it released a statement earlier saying ldquoWe are deeply concerned that the sentiments of the artists and the street art community have been hurt and we empathize Our intent was to inspire fans showcasing the GOATrsquos journey through an artform we love and support Doing so we have inadvertently hurt sentiments we have reached out to the artists of the original artworks BAP startIndia and will work together to restore these walls all in good faithrdquoLooking back on the incident Bahl notes ldquoWhere Budweiser went wrong was that they painted over existing murals which are an important part of Bombay and Delhi and they did it with Messi which was I believe not even painted but printed Why paint over someone elsersquos work which is an iconic part of Bombay It also did take up a lot of time and was funded by Bollywood Art Project so for a brand to come and be insensitive is an issuerdquo However Bahl compliments the brand and admits that the fact that they have reached out is encouraging not only for the artist but for the street art culture in India as they want to celebrate street art just like everybody else in the communityIndian artist Ranjit Dahiya L instructs a painter as they work on a wall mural of Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar in Mumbai on December 29 2016 Photo Indranil MukherjeeAFPAs a matter of artWhile Bandra has a connection with football street art enthusiasts argue the Messi mural is out of place Shaikh says ldquoThe most important thing is the intent The way Bollywood Art Project made that entire portrait on the wall you got inspired by it So what happened is something commercial was slapped on a piece of art that existed for artrsquos sake or for culturersquos sakerdquoDelhibased Bahl adds ldquoYou can say Bandra plays football I understand but there is no community connect there They could have done it in a more specific way near a playground or where people play football and be with the community and done some workshop with the kids maybe given kits out I think the community involvement was missingrdquoStreet art is all about a conversation that the viewer has with the artwork says Thakkar who is also an architect ldquoA mural like the one around Sassoon Dock has done that as it has inspired kids and will inspire them in the future to look at art differently and receive it in a different wayrdquo The form has even started making its way into galleries of Mumbai as evidenced by recent exhibitions by the street artist TylerThis may just be the beginning of a larger movement which revolves around not only preserving street art and murals but also putting guidelines into place that will help protect street art In India it has evolved into a form of expression with the involvement of private partners and building owners and it is only fair that such art be protected While Bahl informs that they are in discussions about it with various stakeholders he thinks it is tricky territory as the very nature of art is that it is on public property and not owned by the artist