Gunher a sleepy little hamlet just outside of Bir, Himachal Pradesh’s premier para-gliding destination, is set to witness an art exhibition of a singular nature. The culmination of a three-week residency comprising contemporary artists from India and abroad, Shop Art is the brainchild of Frank Schlichtmann. Owner of the local 4TABLES Cafe and Gallery, Frank has rented un-utilised village shops and invited a number of conceptual artists to occupy them as their studios during the residency.
These shops are currently doubling as the art spaces for an artist who makes installation art from scrap material, one who sculpts furniture from paper pulp, a low-cost, One Rupee Movie Theatre which will screen films made by the locals after a 21-day zombie/animation/sci-fi filmmaking workshop, and a make-shift radio station where a compilation of Gunher’s myths and legends, music, personal stories of the locals, will be broadcast live.
The final exhibition is expected to showcase the diverse work of the artists, feature live traditional and jazz concerts, movies about arts and artists, artists’ and handicraft stalls, performances, local dances, cuisine etc. If you find yourself in the neighbourhood don’t miss this event that promises to turn an entire village into what can only be called an arts mela for locals and visitors alike. And also to cheer on the efforts of community-minded individuals.
Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu, travel enthusiast and the author of Adrift: A junket junkie in Europe is the youngest of four siblings born into an aristocratic family of Punjab. Dogged in her resistance to conform, and with parental pressure easing sufficiently over the years, she had plenty of freedom of choice. And she chose travel.
She was born in Shimla, and spent her formative years at their home, Windsor Terrace, in Kasumpti while schooling at Convent of Jesus & Mary, Chelsea. The irrepressible wanderlust in her found her changing vocations midstream and she joined Singapore International Airlines to give wing to her passion. She has travelled extensively in Asia, North America, Australia, Europe, South Africa and SE Asia; simultaneously exploring the charms within India.
When she is not travelling, she is writing about it. Over the past decade or so, she has created an impressive writing repertoire for herself: as a columnist with Hindustan Times, as a book reviewer for The Tribune and as a contributor to travel magazines in India and overseas. Her work-in-progress, the documenting of colonial heritage along the Old Hindustan-Tibet Road, is an outcome of her long-standing romance with the Himalayas.
