A look into the process of ‘Territorial Inhalations’ with Ana Laura Cantera
Through our exhibition-season CARBON at Science Gallery Bengaluru (SGB), we had the pleasure of hosting a diverse set of artists from around the world.
Among them was Ana Laura Cantera from Argentina, who was here in Bengaluru to develop her exciting exhibit ‘Territorial Inhalations’.
Armed with a cat backpack, engineered to work as a one-of-a-kind device housing extractors, trackers and biomaterials — here’s a glimpse of her time in Bengaluru creating the exhibit!
What is Territorial Inhalations?
The exhibit is more than just a visual commentary on deteriorating air quality in our cities.
If you have visited the Gallery already, perhaps you already had a conversation with one of our mediators about it. And if you haven’t visited us, please come by!
You could also visit our online exhibition linked below for more details: https://carbon.scigalleryblr.org/exhibition.
Back to Territorial Inhalations.. the build up to what’s on display right now involved a week-long process of walking around different parts of Bengaluru.
For Cantera’s previous iterations of the same work, she spent months walking, cycling and exploring different South American cities. In Bengaluru, however, we only had a week.
Cantera’s desired outcomes was to help visualize an array of problems that have been made invisible due to the current trajectory of urban development. This was planned by examining the change in colour of the mycelium present inside the device created by her, caused by the poor air quality around us.
Spoiler alert: The colour of the mycelium did not change too much!
This could be due to a variety of reasons. Maybe it’s because the mycelium has not been exposed for as long as its previous counter parts, or maybe our air isn’t that bad!
The process of Territorial Inhalations: Bengaluru edition!
How breathable are our cities? How walkable are our cities? How accessible are our cities?
The above questions are all indicative of the thoughts that went through our minds as we walked across the city with Cantera, to create the Bengaluru version of Territorial Inhalations.
Although we were not left with definitive answers at the end of each day, one thing for certain was that walking through the city was an experience that helped us learn a lot.
“We, as humans, exist because of it (carbon), but however, through false development and fictitious progress, we are adding dangerous carbon composites that modify the air we breathe, harming ourselves. Territorial Inhalations is a poetic reflection of this contemporary problem as well as a way of visualization of the quantity of carbon dioxide we have in our cities and in our bodies.” — Ana Laura Cantera
Step 1: Mapping out the Routes
Our first step as a team was to carefully plan out various walking paths across Bengaluru well in advance.
Our goal was to cover different areas of the city that each have unique characteristics. We chose routes in neighborhoods where it’s easy to walk, with pedestrian friendly infrastructure — such as wide sidewalks.
This includesd areas such as MG Road, Church Street and St. Marks’ Road where TenderSURE footpaths have been laid out. In case you aren’t familiar with TenderSURE, they are roads that are specially designed with the intention to inrease walkability.
Busy commercial zones, and historic parts of the city were included as well. KR Market, and Shivajinagar were chosen, where chaotic markets made it a challenge to navigate through at times. Major tourist attractions had to be part too, to help trace the rich cultural history of the city. These included places such as the Vidhana Soudha, Cubbon Park, and Bengaluru Fort.
We also picked major public transportation hubs. This was perhaps chosen to give a glimpse of what the everyday Bengalurean experiences, such as Majestic, and Yeshwanthpur. Residential areas such as Malleshwaram, Rajajinagar, and Jayanagar were also routes that were included due to the close proximity, and connectivity to where we were based.
Step 2: The Walk
Day 1: MG Road/Shivajinagar/Ulsoor lake
With the walking routes having been selected, we began Day 1 of our city exploration on a bright Tuesday morning. Our destination was MG Road, and the plan was to walk through the central business district (CBD) in the first half.
Bengaluru’s morning traffic was relentless, and pollution was certainly at an all time high at areas such as Anil Kumble Circle, where vehicular movement came in from all directions.
However, the wide, walkable footpaths and the abundance of trees laid out on Queens Road helped make the walk towards Vidhana Soudha pleasant, leading to a good start to the series of walks to come.
We broke for lunch at Champaca Book Store, located in Vasanth Nagar after a walk across Cubbon Park where we were joined by an intrigued passerby, who even accompanied us for the second half of the walk!
The second half of Day 1 had us walk through the dense markets of Shivajinagar, with buses, carts and two wheelers zipping by us in close proximity. On the way to our end destination of Ulsoor lake, we were halted by the presence of a rare mushroom that caught Cantera’s attention hanging off of a tree near Dickenson road!
Day 2: Yeshwanthpur/Malleshwaram
Our second day began in the evening from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) campus, where we worked out of before we opened our gallery.
We hopped into an auto to Bettahalli bus stop located on Sandeep Unnikrishnan road near Yelahanka from where we boarded a bus to Yeshwanthpur.
We walked through busy intersections to reach Sandal Soap Factory metro station, where we also had one of our pop-up exhibitions at the time!
After a stop at Orion Mall, we made our way to Malleshwaram to walk through the ever so busy Sampige road. Curious locals spectated as we walked through the neighbourhood with a phone attached to a gimbal recording the walk.
The walk ended with a stop at Central Tiffin Room (CTR), where Cantera was introduced to an iconic, century old food joint.
Day 3: Rajajinagar/Majestic/Church Street
On our third day, our walk began in the afternoon.
A mistake while entering the drop location on Uber, led to an impromptu walk route being formed wherein we walked through the interiors of Rajajinagar.
An unconventional walk route accidentally helped us discover different, unique traditions followed by locals in the city. The ‘White Morning Rangolis’ being one of them.
We then proceeded to connect to Chord road where the famous ISKCON temple is situated. After which, we made our way to Majestic where another one of our pop up exhibits were on display. After a brief engagement with our mediators, we walked through the BMTC bus stand where the sensors on Ana’s backpack were at an all time high.
Our next stop was MG Road, where another one of pop up exhibitions were on display. Joined by a mediator, we made our way through a bustling Church Street on a Thursday evening, where we were stopped on a couple of occasions by curious passersby.
With an early start scheduled the following day, we ended our walk at the St Mark’s road after covering a modest 8km.
Day 4: KR Market/Jayanagar/Chamrajpet
The earliest start amongst all 4 days, we made our way to KR Market at 6am hoping to explore the flower market. However, an underestimation of the crowd that would be present at the market area due to Varalaxmi had us cram through an unimaginably dense horde of people.
With our flower market exploration cut short, we decided to make our way to Jayanagar, a neighbourhood recently having celebrated its 75th anniversary.
At Jayanagar, we were greeted to a less happening flower market and curious citizens who wished to learn more about the device and project in mind.
We returned to the City Market afterwards to explore the heritage sites the city had to offer, such as the Bengaluru Fort and Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace. Being one of the first ones there, we had the luxury of taking our time walking through the age old monuments.
Having completed at least 40,000 steps in 4 days amounting to a total of 30kms, we decided to call it in and rest.
Cantera had a busy weekend coming up, with a workshop on building mycelium objects, and a public walk around Cubbon Park. Both of which required her to rest as much as possible after a grueling few days of walking across the city!
Step 3: Documentation
To complement the walks across the city, we worked towards documenting the entire process with photos and videos, that would be used to create a short film.
The videos were shot entirely on phone, with the support of a gimbal. The short video is on display at the gallery, so make sure you check it out the next time you are there! Alternatively you can also watch it here, on our online exhibition.
What next? Come visit CARBON!
Just like Territorial Inhalations, there are 35+ other exhibits on display right now at Science Gallery Bengaluru for our 6th exhibition-season, CARBON.
CARBON will be on display till July, and we are open all days of the week except for Mondays. You can find more details here, if you plan on making a trip.
Just like this one, be assured that each exhibit on display has a unique backstory with a lot of hard work-making the entire exhibition something you must experience!
PS: Everything at Science Gallery Bengaluru is completely free of cost. So bring your friends and family too!
Written by Vikas Gotla, Communications Associate at Science Gallery Bengaluru who accompanied Ana Laura Cantera on her walks across the city.
