KARACHI: At the Alliance Francaise de Kara­chi on a chilly Wed­nesday evening, the launch of a coffee table book may not have been out of the ordinary but the contents of the book set it apart.

A Reel on Karachi: Art Installation in the City was launched in collaboration with the Karachi Biennale Trust (KBT).

Empty cable reels provided by a company were placed in different parts of the city where artists would gather and transform them into pieces of art.

Providing an innovative canvas for artists to express themselves was not an easy task and required vast mobilisation. It even resulted in incidents of vandalism, explained Mohsin Sayeed, who is a part of the KB team.

However, the teams involved were not discouraged and the project finally culminated positively bringing together artists, designers and architects who worked on site that included NGOs, parks, hospitals, schools, universities and many other public spaces.

Vibrantly decorated and transformed cable reels have been placed at St Patrick’s Cathedral, National Museum of Pakistan, Empress Market, Central Jail, Hill Park, and even at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. A lot of the credit for this goes to the public outreach committee of the KBT, which is headed by Masuma Halai.

She also underscored how important it is for different stakeholders to come together and help projects materialise, which is how this project became possible.

The history of Karachi present in the volume is credited to architect and urban planner Arif Hasan who was present and spoke about the city of Karachi as he views it.

“The population of the country since the 1941 census has increased by 600 per cent,” he said.

He also criticised the laws introduced that he claimed could “destroy the city. One such example is of the Sindh High Density Development Board Act under which the board, which consists of nine people including bureaucrats and politicians, can declare any area, plot, road as high density. There is no plan for this and it is not according to any form of urban design. As a result, high-rise buildings which are being constructed without any larger urban considerations are going to create immense problems for the city”.

Kamal Chinoy, chief executive of Pakistan Cables, spoke about how the project involves the community at large and from all walks of life.

“When we were approached with the idea our thought was what a brilliant idea it is to combine industry with art. We wanted to take art to the streets and give it over to the people.”

Art critic Marjorie Husain also spoke about how the project brought together the artist community and how the reels will remind her always of happy times.

“I hope we can continue with such endeavours as these reels will not let us forget, as people have short memories.”

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2017