tribal art museum-bhopal

tribal art museum is situated in bhopal

1. TRIBAL ART MUSEUM CASE STUDY ON

2. INTRODUCTION The Museum of Tribal Heritage at Bhopal was commissioned by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 2004 since over 30% of the population of the state is tribal. It’s architecture was informed by their rich culture, evolved over millennia. The architecture of the museum, integrates seamlessly into a continuum, the outside with the inside, the natural with the human construct, the tribal with the urban and the viewer with the viewed. The cultural diversity seen in Madhya Pradesh is hard to find anywhere else. Almost oblivious of political boundaries, communities living in states’ peripheries, tribal communities continue linguistic, lifestyle, music and cultural exchanges.

3. SITE LOCATION LOCATION:- LONGITUDE:- LATITUDE:- ALTITUDE:- Madhya Pradesh Tribal Museum Shyamala Hills, Bhopal 462002, Madhya Pradesh. 77° 23‘05.16 E 23° 14’04.23 N 1856 FT

4. DESIGN FEATURES T he architecture of the Museum is inspired by tribal rhythms, geometries, materials, forms, aesthetics and spatial consciousness, these very qualities are now acting as points of inspiration for the display materials being created by tribal artisans, supported by anthropologists, sociologists and social workers. The structure is built of steel tubes, castellated girders, and steel rods fabricated into intricate trusses. Steel seemed to be a natural choice in the land & location of ancient Iron Age & Bronze Age civilizations, and the contemporary truck body building industry.

5. SIMILAR BUILDING NEAR BY The State Museum of Bhopal.

6. SIMILAR BUILDING NEAR BY The State Museum of Bhopal is amongst the best-designed museums in India.   The museum has 16 different theme galleries, showcasing the State's sculptural masterpieces, pre-historic articles and fossils, excavated objects, epigraphs, manuscripts, paintings, royal collection, textile, documents, postal stamps, autographs, miniature paintings, coins, arms and weapons, articles associated with India's freedom struggle. The museum also has reproductions of the now-destroyed Buddhist Bagh Cave paintings, 84 rare Jaina bronzes of the 8th to 11th centuries, Avalokesteshwaras of Lamaism, Saivite sculptures and miniature paintings showing the graceful lifestyles of those distant days.

7. LAND MARK NEAR THE SITE 1.REGIONAL COLLEDGE OF BHOPAL 2.SRC BHARAT SCOUT AND GUIDE M.P.

8. CULTURAL DIVERSITY GALLERY 1 The task of establishing this specialty of Madhya Pradesh and better understanding and display of its multi-dimensional culture will be accomplished in Gallery -1. The gallery will be arranged in manner that will leave a deep impact on visitors about Madhya Pradesh’s multi-pronged cultural presence. Like shoots of banyan tree spread far and wide and are not confined to some definite limits, in the same way culture of various tribes of Madhya Pradesh will be put on display over there. Visitors will directly observe here as to how cultural offshoots of a tribal community crawl into other tribes beyond borders of neighboring state. Pattern of the gallery will be briefly as under:-

9. CULTURAL DIVERSITY GALLERY 1 1.A glimpse of Madhya Pradesh’s map will be put up in entire middle part of the gallery in such a way that a visitor will have inkling about state’s geographical contours, hills, plateaus, forest and serpentine path of lifeline Narmada. Despite being map of Madhya Pradesh, it will give visual effect of an uneven hillock.

10. CULTURAL DIVERSITY GALLERY 1 2. A banyan tree will be built amidst this map or hillock. Offshoots of the banyan tree will be spread up to sky (gallery’s high ceiling) and surrounding states’ tribal culture (whose glimpse will be shown on the gallery’s walls) whereas roots will be spread on the gallery’s floor. This vast tree will be made a via media for various mediums so that there is no excessive burden despite it being strong so that gigantic and majestic look of the banyan tree (which is also state tree and state’s emblem) is maintained.

11. CULTURAL DIVERSITY GALLERY 1 3.Geographical presence of all the major tribes living in Madhya Pradesh will be symbolically shown on the map drawn in the lower part of the gallery with the help of their important symbols.

12. CULTURAL DIVERSITY GALLERY 1 4.Gallery’s vastness and high ceiling motivates for making innovations and there is scope for it also. A staircase will rise from a place in the gallery and then join ramps built above around entire gallery. Visitors will climb up the ramps and have a bird’s eye view of Madhya Pradesh’s map. They will also feel themselves as a part of this vast cultural banyan tree. Down there at the places adjoining walls, there will be various sculptures etc. showing tribal life and culture of the state and bordering states, which will help visitors analyze differences and similarities between both the cultures.

13. CULTURAL DIVERSITY GALLERY 1 5.Flag-like maps will be hanged from branches of banyan tree showing special features/similarities between various tribal communities. These will be displayed in the form of banners and scrolls.

14. TRIBAL LIFE GALLERY 2 A mammoth container for storing food grains has been built in the gallery from where one enters gallery -2 from gallery -1. This food grains container is used in Gond tribal homes for creating a partition, keeping food grains safe, as a canvas for wall paining and keeping household things in cavities made on it while the vacant space in between is used for moving in and out.

15. TRIBAL LIFE GALLERY 2 1.Artists from Mandla have painted various images on its walls with clay and colours , which also give an insight on production of food grains and the methods a Gond woman uses for keeping the grains safe. Information about exhibits on various diverse aspects of tribal culture shown in gallery -2 will be given with the help of ultramodern mediums and equipments.

16. TRIBAL LIFE GALLERY 2 2.It explicit that neither can types of houses of all the tribes of Madhya Pradesh be shown in the limited area of gallery nor it is desirable in the context of this museum. Here, only hints are being given about these houses’ architectural, style-related, behavioral and material features. Changes underwent by dwellings or homes of these tribal communities are also being highlighted here. For examples, walls of Baiga dwellings were earlier made with some strong plant parts or grass. Later, they started making walls by applying mud on bamboo grills and finally walls were made of mud and then with bricks. Earlier, leaves were used to make a thatch followed by some specific types of grass and then with factory-made English tiles. Analysis of this process of change will also help understand changes witnessed in tribal areas.

17. TRIBAL LIFE GALLERY 2 3.In these dwellings, importance of open courtyard, trees in the courtyard, presence of cattle in homes like family members is also being displayed properly. Impression of only outer portion of some houses will be made while effort will be made to create geographical dimensions of some houses. For example, dwellings of Bhil tribe are lonely and on some small hillock and effort is being made here to show a similar look. Paintings of important household things are also being made. Specialties of these simple dwellings and natural material used over there like innumerable possibilities of wood and clay can also being targeted here.

18. TRIBAL LIFE GALLERY 2 4.This gallery serves as a courtyard where dwellings of various tribal communities are adjoining, peeping into each other and creating each other’s neighborhood. You will enter from the door of some tribe’s dwelling and come out into some other tribe’s house and sometimes into a lane of Baiga locality will assure to take you to a lone hillock of some Bhil dwelling.

19. TRIBAL AESTHETIC GALLERY 3 Tribal jewellery and other make-up paraphernalia will be inlaid between two layers of glasses on the windows of corridors from where one enters this aesthetically decorated gallery. In a sense, it will be a lattice made from jewelry and cosmetics. The gallery will also have wooden or terracotta mannequins with tattoo marks. The first canvas for expression of art is, perhaps, the human body. Therefore, its use for displaying various hues of adornments on human body seems justified at the entry point of aesthetics.

20. TRIBAL AESTHETIC GALLERY 3 1.As pointed out earlier, there no such thing as art separately in tribal life. But if look inversely, not even simplest of things like broom or sil-batta (grinding stone) are not untouched by aesthetics. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to decide what to include and what to leave. Therefore, we have set a target to collect rituals of life cycle and songs of season cycle in aesthetics gallery. There is a marriage canopy in the midst of gallery, which will be under the shades of four vast trees, each having identification emblem of four different tribes. It will be more appropriate to say that myths about origination of nature will bless marriage, which is symbol of completeness and continuity of life.

21. TRIBAL AESTHETIC GALLERY 3 2.Efforts are being made to provide opportunities to witness all the hues and gallery from all angles from below or above in one way or other. Two levels are being built in the marriage canopy being created in the midst of the gallery so that visitor can see not only marriage rituals and symbols ingrained on trees, but will also have an overall minute view of entire gallery. At one door of the gallery, terracotta images depicting Bhil death rituals and concept of world of the dead. These images are dedicated to souls of the dead persons and in a sense this a short-term habitat for these souls. These terracotta images are generally installed on ground. But idea behind their installation here has been conceived with a view to giving opportunity to viewers to understand its basic concept with a different angle. It is as if we are watching this world of the dead from any other plain or the Earth from any other planet. There is also a possibility to watch this world of the dead moving in the space like a constellation. There is concept of a separate world for the dead in Bhil and Bhilal myths. Invitation is extended to these dead persons in specific language of the dead called “Muruwa” on special occasions. Earthen lamps are also placed on these images on special occasion, which will be arranged in the gallery with lighting arrangements.

22. TRIBAL AESTHETIC GALLERY 3 3.On the occasion of marriage, new daughter-in-law is given brass bracelet or ring in tribal communities on which symbols of productively like well/stairwell/ploughing pair of bullocks/farmer/field etc are ingrained. This bracelet is very small and is not worn. She keep the bracelet in her hand at the time of preparing seeds. A large image of this bracelet has been made in the gallery. Besides marriage, rituals pertaining to birth of children and death of people will also be shown in totality in the gallery. Here, folklores linked to these, rituals and rites, and all and aspects of its process through physical things will be seen and understood.

23. TRIBAL AESTHETIC GALLERY 3 4.Efforts will also be made to give concrete shape to tribal festivals and events related to seasons and cultivation, dances, songs and attires linked to them. Process is also underway to develop enlarged images of Bhils’ myths about making percussion instruments, Gonds’ myth about Badadev residing in Saja tree and making of a percussion instrument called “Bana” from the same tree to appease Badadev. Hollow of a dried tree trunk is being used to give impression of a large dried up tree. It will offer a better opportunity to understand natural vastness of small percussion instrument “Bana”, capture its rhythm and assimilate inherent intricacies of the instrument.

24. TRIBAL SPIRITUAL WORLD GALLERY 4 Images of a thorny tree has been made on the wall of the corridor leading from Aesthetics gallery to Devlok. Thorns remind people of pain and strength to bear pain and remain unmoved by it is received from Devlok, where this ‘thorny’ corridor is leading.

25. TRIBAL SPIRITUAL WORLD GALLERY 4 1.It is hard nut to crack to conceptualise Devok in a modern building and that too a Devlok where tribal people avoid to enter a concrete place of worship whose vague image is often seen in the form of a rostrum, a raw stone, a fluttering flag, a stick, a pillar, trident, earthen lamp or terracotta offering is seen on the side of roads, amidst jungles, on the bank of a small pond and sometimes on invisible boundary of village in which deity is totally absent.

26. TRIBAL SPIRITUAL WORLD GALLERY 4 2.The shorthand language of symbols and signs in which these tribal communities have writing constitution of their Devlok borders on unending and unlimited possibilities of time and space. Possibly for this reasons they did never attempt to build any massive Devlok since the most massive of a building will be like a dust particle in the context of these unlimited vastitude.

27. TRIBAL SPIRITUAL WORLD GALLERY 4 3.Therefore , all good and bad spirits of jungles, ponds, rivers, hills have been invoked at Devlok Gallery. These inputs and symbols as mentioned above are rostrums beneath trees, terracotta officerings, tridents, earthen lamps, Meghnath Khamb of Korku tribe, Sarag Naseni of Gonds, Gul of Bhils, Tatal Dev’s place, Dev Gudi of Baigas etc. There are souls of ancestors, wandering spirits, spooks and ghosts, innumerable saviour gods. Some are protecting seeds, some bringing strayed cattle back home, some will repair and restore broken hand or leg and some god will free village from epidemic.

28. TRIBAL SPIRITUAL WORLD GALLERY 4 4.During visit to tribal Devlok gallery it become explicit that it is more a world to experience than watch. Therefore, it is more important to create that particular climate for making it feel or experience in which inanimate stone, a rostrum and offerings made to gods can start breathing like an animate.

29. TRIBAL SPIRITUAL WORLD GALLERY 4 5.As said above earlier also, more than one storeys have been prepared in each gallery so that visitors can view it from various angles from below and above. Deliberate effort has been made to disturb the feeling if one is on the eartj and seeing everything from some other plane. The same is the reason behind covering iron grills ordinarily or partially with barbed chains so that continuity of this experience is not only maintained but also strengthened the chains which are symbols of deity’s power.

30. Exhibition AND GUEST gallery GALLERY 5 Under the initiative of setting up a gallery for guest state, first of all life of tribal communities of Chhattisgarh state is being depicted in this gallery. That is why the corridor leading from Devlok to this gallery has been converted into courtyard and corridor adjoining it of Rajwar tribe of Sarguja in Chhattisgarh. Rajwar dwellings style of bamboo and clay lattices and way of coating is highly specialized and has the honour of becoming an identity of not only its community, but also entire state.

31. Exhibition AND GUEST gallery GALLERY 5 1.Chhattisgarh is a tribal-dominated state and a large population of these tribes lives in Bastar area. All the tribes have a specific role to play in preparing Dussehra Rath over there at the time of Dussehra right from identifying trees in jungles for it, upto collection of leaves for covering it, driving nails home, preparing various parts of the rath, brinking Maoli Mata’s Chhatra from Jagdalpur, bending and pulling it on roads etc. Efforts are being made to grasp specialities of all the tribal communities by linking them with this meaningful exhibit depicting tribal affinity through physical objects.

32. Exhibition AND GUEST gallery GALLERY 5 2.Besides , Maoli Mata ki Gudi, Sheetla Mata ka Sthan, Karmseni Vraksh and a lane with dwellings of potter, washerman, ironsmith/blacksmith and their tools have also been displayed. Gudi of Adhishthata Devi Danteashwari is inside the door of Rajwada of Bastar and since there is no major role of Bastar royal family in bringing Danteshwari Mata to Bastar, preparation of Dussehra Rath, celebrating the festival in this way and due to deep attachment of all the tribal communities with these festivals and rituals, consent has been reached give shape to entry door of the gallery on the lines of entry gate of Bastar Rajwada.

33. Exhibition AND GUEST gallery GALLERY 5 Pictorial and written documentation of games of children of various tribal communities like Baiga, Gond, Saharia, Kol, Korko, Bharia etc has been made by visiting their areas. Since there are a number of games of tribal children but only a few toys, this display is being shaped with paintings, photographs and other means well besides toys.

34. Exhibition AND GUEST gallery GALLERY 5 1.Playing images have been prepared using terracotta, hollows of dried gourd, hemp, papier-mâché etc. with a view to make understand nature of game. Images jumping, swaying on trees can be seen to understand games played on trees. Wrestling images smeared in mud can also be seen. Images of games played on ground like gippa, goti, chaupad etc. will be shown on the ground.

35. Exhibition AND GUEST gallery GALLERY 5 2.Use of earthen pitchers made by potters of western Madhya Pradesh in improving gallery’s acoustics and lighting arrangements is worth noticing. Despite being a part of indigenous knowledge, this can open a new important and innovative vista of using the technique in modern context. A partition made of pieces of dry bamboo will be effective in maintaining gallery’s light, warmth and environment.

36. ENTERANCE GATE

37. ENTERANCE PLAZA

38. ENTERANCE TO MUSIUM

39. LIBERARY

40. SEMINAR HALL

41. AMPHITHEATRE

42. CENTRAL AMPHITHEATRE

43. AUDITORIUM

44. DORMITORY

45. CAFETERIA

46. OFFICES

47. OFFICES

48. WORKSHOPS 1.Metal workshop:- 2.Teracota and EARTH workshop:-

49. WORKSHOPS 1.Wood and bamboo workshop:- 2.PHOTOGRAPHY workshop:-

50. WORKSHOPS 1.HAndMADE PAPER DISPLAY AND WORKSHOP:- 2.Dance and music workshop:-

51. DISPLAY AREA

52. RESERVE COLLECTION

53. COURTYARDS

54. SHOPS AND STORES

55. STORAGE

56. PARKING