On one of my trips to London, while walking towards the market I crossed at least three garages where some or the other exhibition was on. I went in. It had a total of three visitors and around six artists were showcasing their work. They were standing there, handing out pamphlets, speaking to the people who came in, basically working hard to reach out to people, no matter the size of the audience. That had a great impact on me. I said to myself, ?It?s all about individual effort?. Bringing art to people and making it commonly available is up to us. So we started AntiMatter,? explains Pushpendra Misra, founder of Flying Saucer, an ad film production company. AntiMatter’s mission is to provide a platform for art forms which do not find space in mainstream culture but are repositories of generations of artistic ingenuity and ensure that today’s generation of artists learn from them.
Creativity has never been the fiefdom of only those in the mainstream. It is in every nook and corner of the country, quietly sustaining itself. However, most of the times we only get to read and hear about those who come to us through various mass media. Even those in the mainstream hardly ever interact in a truly open space where they can exchange ideas outside the silos of their respective agencies and offices. The link between advertising and popular culture is an old one. While advertising does feed off different forms of art, rarely is it acknowledged. A wave of change, however, is perceptible. Since the last couple of years, various groups and forums have been established by media professionals to bring latent creative talent to limelight and spaces where people in the communication industry can freely interact with each other and share ideas. Thanks to these initiatives, different aspects of culture and creativity ? from acting and art to films and photography to literature and language ? are finding recognition and new converts. Adding credibility to these events are professionals from different fields who are keen on talking about their craft in these interactive sessions and are ready to mentor wannabe artists.
Brandwagon profiles four such initiatives which are trying to change how creativity is perceived and brings together people from diverse backgrounds to explore new dimensions of creativity while learning from each other ? Alt Del, Visual Disobedience, AntiMatter and The Media Cafe. Ad man Prathap Suthan was perhaps the first to walk a different path. In 2009, Suthan started Delhi Alternative (now Alt Del) in an attempt to bring people from different creative backgrounds to share ideas, hold workshops, etc. ?Alt Del is a non-profit body that?s an alternative to everything that exists,? says Suthan. The Media Cafe, launched by Sudha Natrajan and Raghav Subramanian who worked with Lintas Media for many years, is a recent entrant in this new scheme of things. It aims to be a space where media professionals can let their hair down over a cup of coffee or a drink and have a platform to share ideas. Then there is AntiMatter which aims to bring forth unconventional and underground creativity to the forefront. Visual Disobedience, launched by Saurabh Kanwar, is a platform to showcase and promote visual arts.
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