Image: Indu Antony

Cecilia’ed looks at disrupting normative notions of gender in public spaces by working with neighbourhood spaces that are marked ‘unsafe’ for women, using the politics of herd mentality and celebrity culture.

Taking Bangalore as the locus of the project, she has identified obsolete spaces like salons and bars, gendered spaces specifically, and intends to reopen them through a ceremonial show using Cecilia, a local figure of emancipation and bravura.

The project shall generate and make use of processes like old lithograph posters, sonic cartographs and photo-albums of the events in an attempt to preserve an analogue visual language and map the gendered predicaments and histories of the pockets being re-opened. The project started in January 2019 with the support of the Public Art Grant given by Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art. Cecilia’ed received PAG 2019, an annual grant aimed at supporting artists interested in working in the public realm in India.

BACK STORY:

According to the crime branch report of 2016, Bangalore was ranked third as a city that reported crimes against women. According to a recent poll (2018) conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation, India has been adjudged the most dangerous country for women. A recent survey (2018) of 3000 women conducted by the NGO Save the Children reveals that 90% of Bangalore’s women do not feel safe and  fear daily sexual harrasment, including lewd comments, inappropriate touching  and other forms of sexual assault in public places.

The project is initiated and led by an artist Indu Antony.

To read more about the project and how to be involved, please go to the direct link.