From Miami To Mumbai, How Art Deco Was A Swadeshi Act: An NDTV Special

What's common between Mumbai and Miami? Both are coastal cities, both of course have beaches and both are also cities that are unique in character and identity.

Located on opposite sides of the globe, one thing that closely connects the two cities is art-deco.

Now, a unique twin city festival is being organised in both Mumbai and Miami to celebrate 100 years of Art Deco.

Art Deco Alive, founded by Mumbai-based entrepreneur Smiti Kanodia, with Miami-based co-founders Salma Merchant Rahmathulla and Gayatri Hingorani Dewan, has been organised to celebrate the spirit of creativity across continents while reinforcing the ideas of preservation, education and collaboration.

Smriti Kanodia, Founder, Art Deco Alive, says, "This year is the 100th year of the Art Deco period globally. It started in 1925 in Paris and came in the forties to Mumbai. While one really knows art-deco as an architectural form, so one tends to think of it as building facade, with its grills, sunburst terraces and balconies, it's actually much more than an architectural form. It's about the stories within the facade. It's about the jewellery, the fashion, the food, the stories that grandparents shared with grandkids and about the way people lived"

"The idea really is to dial it back and to share what art deco is as an idea behind the facade. Through Art Deco Alive we hope to showcase all different aspects of living the Art Deco life and what is beautiful about this style is while it started a hundred years ago, its even contemporary and modern today. So, it's one of the few architectural styles or design elements, the remain relevant. So how do we think of preserving it for the future, what does it say about our identity, these are things that we are exploring and a lot of people only know about the architecture of particular parts of Mumbai like Marine Drive which have Art Deco buildings but our idea is to showcase it across the city, from Shivaji Park, to Juhu , to Carmichael Road. Wherever there are Art Deco buildings and Art Deco stories, whether someone has an earring from that era, or it might be the kind of food that people ate, music they heard. This is our second rendition of it. We did the first one in Miami last month. Miami has the largest number of Art Deco buildings in the world and Mumbai has the second largest number of Art Deco buildings in the world and the idea is to showcase and feel city pride in the place we live," Kanodia adds.

A key highlight of the festival is the centenary museum exhibition co-presented by Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum and Art Deco Alive Ocean Drive To Marine Drive: Mapping a Century of Art Deco. The exhibition showcases the stories, the personalities and the iconic structures that are beyond the most identified structures like Marine Drive.

Dr Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, Managing Trustee and Hon. Director, Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum says, "This is a remarkable initiative to foreground Art Deco. It's a very important part of the city's architectural and cultural legacy but the idea of having this twin city collaboration of Miami and Mumbai - Ocean Drive to Marine Drive is something different, something that has captured the imagination of the people of this city. You see it across the city. It was a style that took off post the plague in Mumbai."

"So, this was a style that was progressive, that was open, that included verandahs and there were a lot of cross ventilation and many features that were not fussy but very simple and elegant. But Art Deco was not just about the building. It was also about how you lived. So, the furniture, the jewellery designs and the , the carpets as you can see in the exhibition. It was a whole way of thinking and including design in your life and I think as we go forward, we need to understand that design is a very important part of our existence," Zakaria adds.

The city's administrators are taking note of the effort and rethinking how Art Deco spaces can be imagined in today's times.

Culture Minister of Maharashtra, Ashish Shelar told NDTV, "We are celebrating the 100th year now and the background says that after the plague this must have been discussed then that we need to have some kind of homes which should have a thought and which should address the issue of this disease, which was plague then. It came to my mind that we should think that after the plague if designers and architects though of creating something which has become this, why can't we show the world, a construction, design and architecture, we can begin with one or two buildings, that after Coronavirus we went through a phase and now architects have come together to create this. This can be a thought we can discuss." 

Bhushan Gagarani, Commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said, "The vaastu in which you live or the vaastu in which you work has a very defining influence on our thought processes, our outlook and our way of approaching things. Like I now work in Victorian, Gothic, Neo-Gothic structure of the Mumbai Mahanagarpalika. It's a very imposing structure and whenever you enter the structure, you enter 170 years of legacy, history and that gives you a very overwhelming sense of responsibility. The Art Deco also brings a lot of exuberance and it has been repeatedly said that it is a celebration of life. Mumbai's spirit is being displayed."

Mumbai city's fight against colonialism is also reflected in the Art Deco precincts of Mumbai. Atul Kumar, Founder Trustee of Art Deco Mumbai Trust says, "I am glad you brought it up because we simply don't talk about the politics of architecture. So, we are talking about a period, timeline is 1925, we are deeply colonized. The British are running the country. They are dividing states and they are dividing princely families. But in Bombay there is a bond of business and opportunity. The imposition of colonial influence is reflected through their architecture which is Victorian gothic, so you have the High Court, the BMC building, the Gateway of India. In front of that they allowed a new architectural style to develop, built by Indians, for Indians with an Indian sensibility. And they did not perceive it to be a threat. That's quite remarkable that we could bring a modern style with desi representation or swadeshi and they were not threatened by it. I believe the only explanation is that they called it a lesser architecture so they were dismissive of it but thank God they were because we now have one of the finest collections in the world of Art Deco architecture in Mumbai."