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An unprecedented inter-cultural arts project called Tramjatra has since 1996 brought together artists and the tramways communities of Melbourne (Australia) & Kolkata (Calcutta, India) to explore their cities through the medium of tramways. In the context of increasing debates about sustainability and the impact and processes of globalisation, Tramjatra has demonstrated how new linkages made through a public arts practice of inter-cultural collaboration can enliven approaches to identifying and building upon attributes of value in a city. Through a time when Kolkata`s struggling tramways have faced a persistent threat of closure and the operation of Melbourne`s tramways has been privatised and automated, the Tramjatra project has provoked a broader, globally oriented engagement in what it is to move and be moved in contemporary urban life. The book explores this relationship between the movement afforded by tramways as a mode of public transport, and the contemporary social, political, economic and creative forces of movement that are manifested in the relation between these two contemporary cultures of tramways.
Written in English, with a small proportion in Bengali, the book includes essays by emerging as well as internationally renowned writers and scholars (Dipesh Chakrabarty, Gayatri Spivak and so on) which discuss historical links between Melbourne & Kolkata; that examine the relation between memory and tram travel, ticketing and travelling; that revisit past events of the Tramjatra project; that locate Tramjatra in the context of western notions of public art, and in the context of debates on transculturalism and international education; and which unravel issues of translation in inter-cultural arts practice. The volume also includes short writings by a diverse range of participants and `passengers` responding to and building upon the Tramjatra project. Supplemented with stunning visuals, this unique volume published simultaneously in India and Australia offers a journey through two cities and a contemporary relation between them via the medium of tramways.
ISBN - 9788190227247
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Pages : 304
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