We The People: Using Art To Bring Tribal Culture To The Mainstream

For Shiva Gor, 36, art is his medium of choice to visually represent the rich culture of his tribal community, and offer a critique to current practices of art. Shiva is from the Gor community바카라�a subgroup of the Banjaras바카라� in Maharashtra. He specialises in installations, an artistic genre of site-specific, three-dimensional design to transform the perception of a space. Gor has been working on voicing the issues of tribal communities through art. 바카라�We talk about Dalits, Brahmins, Muslims. But we don바카라�t often talk about tribes. Because democracy is not accessible to them. And hardly anyone is coming to the jungles to check upon them,바카라� he says. Gor believes that art has a power and it should be used to present a discourse for tribal communities.

Gor is a first-generation graduate. He acquired his Master바카라�s degree in art from Sir J.J School of Arts in Mumbai. He thinks his education was possible because the Constitution guarantees certain rights to us. Growing up, he faced a lot of discrimination. 바카라�It has become part of our language. We need to challenge that.바카라� Initially, Gor considered tea­ching as a career for a secure future. But 바카라�I realised it won바카라�t serve the purpose.바카라� He wants to empower his community and become an artist. Tribal communities are losing their culture and heritage and Gor is working on preserving them. He says, 바카라�it is important to preserve tribal culture. The new generation is forgetting their language and heritage. This should not happen.바카라� He fears that it will further marginalise them. 바카라�We need to communicate ideas of empowerment with tribes to empower them to speak about their rights. Only this will bring equality,바카라� Gor says, 바카라�My work is to take social democracy to the people. By talking to them, voicing their concern.바카라� Politicians have no stake in taking up issues of tribal community, 바카라�it is us, within the community, to come forward to demand our rights.

(This appeared in the print edition as "Art Has its Reasons")

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