Germany India- Infinite Opportunities. A labour of love

I very rarely talk about work on my blog. Mostly because my blog is an escape from my work. But in true follow my recipe style I felt this project had a place on the blog for all its heart and warmth.
The Germany India- Infinite Opportunities is a two year long cultural program held in all major cities in India. Performances, music, dance, theater, photography and many such collaborations and cultural exchanges. The Urban Mela is a traveling festival across 5 major cities around India- Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Pune. Its consists of these beautiful jewel like pavilions designed by German artist Markus Heinsdorff. Each pavilion is given to a German partner company to showcase the idea of sustainable cities.

I designed the Deutsche Bank Pavilion along with my team at Ogilvy Action. The few of us involved in the project ideated, curated, wrote, designed and provided technical specifications for the exhibition for the Deutsche Bank Pavilion.  The idea was to curate a set of projects created by various innovators who are designing objects, systems, ideas that would make better living in the our crowded urban scenario. Windowfarms, Green Karbon- On urban biodiversity, $300 House contest winner, Solar Lantern, Solar Plane, Dream In, A sanitation project,  The waterfront reclamation project. The pavilion becomes a place to exchange ideas and thoughts on how to make better cities.
Many projects are brought alive through interesting interactive ways. Such as the Green Karbon project culminates in a photo contest challenging people to capture biodiversity in their cities. The window farms is currently growing eggplant and chilies and a dream tree that invites people to tie their dreams on a tag. Many projects were Deutsche Bank supported and some were just people that we believed in. Shagun Singh of Designwala helped us curate and reach out to the various innovators so that we could showcase their work.

In the process of design, I went through several layouts trying to create the best narrative possible. What works with what. Working with German organizers for the festival was also interesting as they had several processes in place such as understanding our electrical requirements etc. All in all it was a great learning experience.

On the opening day, when I walked into the Pavilion it was a moment of pride. People were walking through, looking, reading, understanding. Our super college kid promoters did an excellent job thoroughly explaining each project to the visitors. People looked engaged. I was amazed with the windowfarms. It was brilliant - it worked. There was also a baby eggplant growing. The dream in tree was filled with dreams. Though only 50 sq m this Pavilion was a labour of love. It had heart.

The Urban Mela is up till Sunday April 22nd at Cross Maidan at Churchgate. Do go see it. Its stunning- in the evening all the various pavilions light up. Some of the others were also interesting. There is a beer garden  serving Erdingers and bratwursts.

The painstaking process of construction of the pavilions and some initial design drawings. I was not involved in the final installation of the pavilion.

Do participate in the photography contest for Green Karbon.

Some acknowledgements are in order. My Ogilvy Action team - Nyka, Aarti, Khushboo, Shripad, Shrikant, Vipul and Rahul. Our various support people the photographers, website designers, AV makers. The organizers of the Urban Mela. Though there are many here to thank I especially want to thank Jenny and Henning. And of course our client at Deutsche Bank to give us this opportunity- Linus, Reshma, Ajay, Madhav and Mike.
Thank you for this opportunity.

The Turkish Market

The Turkish connection is not done yet. On my last day in Berlin (yes that had to come too) I visited the Turkish street market- a complete visual delight. I might have to post many pictures here too. My friend Jiten wrote to me that it was a must see. I read about it on Berlin.Unlike which I found a very helpful site and this lovely article - When in Berlin..  I got off at the Schonstrasse stop and walked towards the Landwehrkanal. The market is a half mile- long along this canal. This area was part of former East Berlin, now a very young hip area called Kreuzberg. The buildings were beautiful- large, imposing Pre-war 4 storey apartments with gorgeously decorated Art Nouveau and Deco facades with exquisite details. The beauty of the Berlin prewar homes is that they are spacious and highly subsidized to live in.

The Turkish Market is a very popular for cheap and fresh shopping for everything ranging from household knick knacks to the freshest fruits vegetables, meats and fish. Bales of fabric, shoes, ear rings, cheeses, cold cuts, hams, proscuittos, salamis, dates, walnuts, jellybeans, spinach wraps, feta and bean wraps, sesame crusted breads, Turkish sugar and marshmellow candies, minced meat pies, even south african food, - corn meal, fried chicken and beans. Fresh fruit juices and smoothies, fish, sardines calamari, clams, oyesters, a variety of olives, pates, sundried tomatoes, cherries, watermelons, bright red plum tomatoes, mushrooms and eggplants. The strangest colorful objects such as doorknobs, sandals, bangles, scarves, leather wallets and purses skirts, spools of threads, knitting wool, Turkish tunics and shiny fabrics. A feast of colors and textures and smells and sounds and languages. Not only did my ears constantly tune in and out of the German language which I was finding quite lovely but mixed in with Arabic it was quite a treat. I walked down the tiny aisle on the sidewalk flanked with little stalls on either side watching people, haggle, buy, laugh, eat, drink, talk, chat with each other. Every time I clicked a photo people would pose and smile - it was a Friday afternoon. Everyone was relaxed- a couple of paces slower than anywhere I had been before. It was a pace that suited me well. Was this really the hardworking, super conscious of time with cutting edge technology Germany that I had always heard of. I could see myself here- in this space and time, buying fresh food from this Turkish market, cooking meals for friends- speaking fluent German (sigh), making art, hanging with some of the graffiti kids, dancing to repetitive beats-the music that rocks this city. Ah Berlin!

Wraps of fresh arugula, spinach, feta and tomatoes. Toasted to perfection, a wonderful snack to walk around with.

I sat on this deck space in the middle of the market and enjoyed my plate of spicy Ghanian food. There were many young people here. Playing music, picnicking on breads and cheese and of course beer. It was a very pleasant afternoon. Who were these kids? Why were they free in the middle of a Friday afternoon to sit and enjoy and relax and hang out with their friends. Lovely little dog came and joined me playing with everyone.

As the sun went down on my last day in Berlin. Light streaming through the green leaves I walked back to my friends Ruturaj and Ria's place to spend my last evening in Berlin. Sigh!