{"id":12382,"date":"2011-09-03T08:09:01","date_gmt":"2011-09-03T08:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.tehelka.com\/?p=12382"},"modified":"2011-09-03T08:09:01","modified_gmt":"2011-09-03T08:09:01","slug":"nobody-spoke-to-me-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/nobody-spoke-to-me-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Nobody spoke to me in China\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tushar Joag, 45, is a Mumbai-based self-proclaimed \u201cpublic intervention artist\u201d who wants to encourage public debate. In a conversation with\u00a0Aastha Atray Banan<\/strong>, he talks about epiphanies and effectiveness<\/em>
\n

\"Tushar<\/a>
Pathfinder<\/strong>\u00a0Tushar Joag en route to Shanghai<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nWhat does it mean when you say you are a \u2018public intervention artist\u2019?
\n<\/strong>When I came back from the International Human Rights Academy in the Netherlands, I was disgusted with the art world. I felt this art was equal to navel-gazing. I destroyed all my artworks and became an activist. It was also such a slap of reality coming back to India. In Europe, I\u2019d gotten used to opulence. I mean kids here don\u2019t get food! The art I do now is not limited to a gallery, but addresses large public gatherings directly.
\nYou see Sardar Sarovar and the Three Gorges dams as symbols of the frenzied development in India and China and have visited both places. What were your key observations?<\/strong>
\nThis time I interacted with more people in India and blogged all through. I spoke to people about the repercussions they\u2019d face. We think building a dam is progress, but what do the displaced get? They need to get their share of benefits too.
\nIn that respect, does China act any differently than India?<\/strong>
\nIn India, we have a voice, even a dissenting one. It\u2019s not allowed in China. It\u2019s very oppressive. Nobody spoke to me there. The locals ran away. My blog posts were blocked. I felt like I was being watched.
\nChe Guevara is your hero. But he is also accused of being a totalitarian. Isn\u2019t that ironical?<\/strong>
\nThere are always positive things you can take from a person. Even Gandhi wasn\u2019t liked by everyone, was he?
\nEarlier this year, you locked yourself up in a 150×91 cm space for five days to protest against Binayak Sen\u2019s arrest. Was it effective? What do you think about Anna Hazare\u2019s form of protest?<\/strong>
\nMy intervention may not have caused policy change, but my aim is to get people to debate key issues. On the last day, Binayak and Ilina Sen came over. The kind of response Anna has been getting is overwhelming. And if the public has been held to ransom by the government for so long, it\u2019s okay to hold them to ransom now.
\nHow has your project Unicell helped your endeavours?<\/strong>
\nUnicell aims to raise awareness about the immediate issues people face on a daily basis. One of our projects was held when the Maharashtra government demolished a number of slums. I started the Venice of the East project and delivered eviction notices to residents of upper middle-class households, saying that Mumbai was being converted into a city like Venice and their houses were in the way of canals. I delivered letters to almost 6,000 homes. So I touched almost 30,000 people.
\nWhat is up your sleeve next?<\/strong>
\nA solo show in Delhi in October where I\u2019ll showcase drawings with objects made of paper pulp. It\u2019ll be inspired by my journey from Mumbai to Shanghai.
\nAastha Atray Banan is a Senior Correspondent, Mumbai with Tehelka.\u00a0<\/em>
\naastha@tehelka.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tushar Joag, 45, is a Mumbai-based self-proclaimed \u201cpublic intervention artist\u201d who wants to encourage public debate. In a conversation with\u00a0Aastha Atray Banan, he talks about epiphanies and effectiveness What does it mean when you say you are a \u2018public intervention artist\u2019? When I came back from the International Human Rights Academy in the Netherlands, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[5725,5755,5756,666,71,433,5757,5758,1747,5759,5760,4179],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}