‘Art is a revolution to understand ourselves’

By Aashish Mishra Kathmandu, June 15: Let’s face it. Kathmandu is not a very beautiful city. 

Save for its heritage sites and core areas, our nation’s capital does not have much to present to the outside world. It is an urban space dominated by boring concrete that lacks life and lustre. 

This is what Rajan Sakya, founder of the Museum of Nepali Art (MoNA) at Kathmandu Guest House, Thamel, thinks. 

Kathmandu has the potential to look good, he told The Rising Nepal, to become an eye-catching gem, his hands rose and face contorted with frustration-tinged enthusiasm. 

“But we have to give space to our artists,” he stressed.

But space where? Galleries? Halls? Offices? Of course not, Sakya said with a firm resolve. Buildings.

“Buildings are great canvases, we just have not realised it yet.”

So, to bring this realisation, MoNA has initiated the Street Art Fest, to inspire people to think about how a building or a wall might be transformed to beautify the concrete Kathmandu skyline while also whitewashing the so-called “boring” and “ugly” places through mural art. 

And the first building being beautified is the east face and part of the north face of the Kathmandu Art House (KAH) on the Kathmandu Guest House premises itself.

MoNA has commissioned street artist and muralist Kiran Maharjan to paint the building. 

Maharjan is a quite artist whose brush has coloured various streets in Denmark, Finland, Cambodia and India and whose works have been exhibited in major galleries across Nepal as well as in platforms like the 20X21 EUG Mural Project (USA), St+art India Foundation (India), Young Subcontinent Project (India) and Kathmandu Triennale (Nepal). But he is not a household name. And this bugs Sakya who hopes that this fest will provide space and recognition to Nepali talent.

“People will come here, see the painting [on the Kathmandu Art House] and hopefully, want to do the same in their locations,” he said, explaining that this could be a great way for an organisation to brand itself and catch the public’s eye – and at a fraction of the cost of regular advertising. 

Shakya informed that the entire cost of painting the 1,200 square feet of wall space of the four-storey KAH building was less than traditional advertising, with Berger Paints sponsoring the paint for the initiative. There are other sponsors too.

“So, instead of spending twice or thrice that sum on putting up billboards or advertising in mass media, why not commission an artist to utilise the space on your buildings and create a distinctive identity in the process?” Shakya suggested. “It’s time to start thinking about this!”

MoNA and KAH will maintain Maharjan’s artwork till December 2023 and anyone wishing to see him at work can visit Kathmandu Guest House at Sat Ghumti Marg, Thamel.

The Street Art Fest, as a whole, started on Saturday and will continue till July 9.

As part of the fest, MoNA is also holding an Art Market on Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm which will feature a live art competition, a mango festival, performance art and a photography exhibition. 

 MoNA states on the Street Art Fest’s webpage: “It’s time to bring a revolution through art. A revolution to understand ourselves; a revolution to understand who we are.”