The Dharavi Biennale, Mumbai's new arts and science festival - in pictures
The inaugural festival highlights the contribution of Dharavi, Mumbai’s largest informal settlement, to India’s economic and cultural life while informing people about the health issues residents face there. It is organised by the Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action (SNEHA)
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Kishan Salbul, a Dharavi theatre actor, poses in a mask for a street play on tuberculosis. This and all other artworks will be shown in Dharavi between 15 February and 7 March as part of the Alley Galli Biennale – the culmination of a two-year project
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A woman readies pots for firing in the kiln at Kumbharwada. Among the earliest settlements in Dharavi, Kumbharwada is well known for its earthenware
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Dyes line the wall at blockprinter Ahmed Razak Shaikh’s workshop at AKG Nagar in Dharavi. Shaikh belongs to a group of blockprinters from Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. With the advancement of screen printing, blockprinting is a disappearing skill
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Kumari Yadav from Delhi-based Ishara Puppets helps Dharavi women make a papier-mâché mask, for a street play on tuberculosis featuring life-sized puppets
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Provoke/Protect is a series of upcycled sarees appliquéd with slogans against rape and protective symbols. This piece ‘Keep Safe Distance’, made by Nika Feldman, draws on Indian truck art
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Mahalingam Nadar, a masseur in Dharavi who uses traditional herbal oils to treat sprains and muscle pulls. Nadar is featured in the Healers of Dharavi exhibit, curated by Medicine Corner for the Wellcome Collection
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Little clay schoolboys painted by Suraiya Ansari, a Dharavi resident and activist against domestic violence, form part of Safety Deposit Box, an installation about gendered spaces
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Growing fresh air in Kumbharwada’s smoke-ridden environs. Adrienne Thadani and Nicola Antaki share insights with the potters of Kumbharwada on plants that can purify the air in their homes
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Komal Kale’s comic on pollution in Dharavi is put on display as part of Comics Epidemic, a series of community comics on health and sexuality under the mentorship of Chaitanya Modak
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Mohammad Shameem from Ishara Puppets trains Dharavi residents for the street play on tuberculosis. TB is prevalent in Mumbai, and Dharavi’s Biennale is supported by global health foundation the Wellcome Trust
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Junk into jewels … Dharavi residents, mentored by Arushi Aggarwal and Priyanka Bansal, sourced household scrap and turned them into quirky jewellery pieces
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A dyer at Dharavi’s Social Nagar churns beige buttons to colour them orange. Dyeing is part of a local network of processes for textile goods manufacturing
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The Dharavi Food Project is a cookbook of traditional and experimental recipes shared by eight Dharavi women. Curated by art historian Prajna Desai, the recipes were discussed and created at a pop-up kitchen at the Colour Box, Dharavi Biennale’s workshop space
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‘Strength in Unity’, made by Sheventa Khade, is another of the Provoke/Protect sarees. Made from second-hand sarees sourced from the Kunchi Kurve community in Dharavi, these sarees protest against rape
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Dharavi women, under the mentorship of textile artist Susie Vickery, have fashioned pompoms out of old sarees. Check out the Alley Galli Biennale map of venues here
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