Cartist art festival brings art and automobiles together on a single platform.
Cartist, the automobile art festival has commenced on 27th November 2020, virtually in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Being held between 27-30th November, the theme of the 2020 edition of the art festival is sustainability and it focuses on Covid-19 warriors and climate change this year.
Cartist is India’s first platform and art festival that brings art and automobiles together. The art festival started back in 2015 and has garnered much attention from the enthusiasts in automobile and art fraternity.
Car art is a form of artefacts that have garnered popularity in several countries. However, it is still not considered as a mainstream art form. The car art is heavily influenced by the 1960’s counterculture movement, more popularly known as hippie culture. The Volkswagen Type 2 or Kombi has been one popularly known vehicle that has been featured with paintings during that era.
In South Asian countries, rickshaw art is a popular form of automobile art. It is a form of neo-romanticism and consists of oil paintings on the exterior of rickshaws, painted by local street artists, often in form of landscapes, portraits and personal statements of the driver. In Pakistan and in India as well, this art form can be seen in trucks and buses in several areas. The Cartist art festival focuses on bringing this art form into the light.
In the 2020 edition, during the inaugural session, subjected on ‘Sustainability Matters: Now is the Time to Act’, Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM; Debashis Sen, IAS, Government of West Bengal, Padma Shri Shakir Ali and auto industry expert Avik Chattopadhyay brought out their views on the sustainability in the auto industry.
Cartist art festival: It’s all about cars and colours
Rajesh Menon, DG, SIAM shared how the automobile industry is making concerted efforts to integrate sustainable solutions. According to him, the sustainable transportation has to consider all three dimensions in a comprehensive way – social, economic and environment.
Rajesh Menon also describes how the Indian automobile Industry has transitioned to BS-VI emission norms across segments in the fastest timeline. Also, he talked about the issues like new technologies, alternate fuels like CNG, recycling of vehicles etc., that have been disrupting the auto industry.
Menon also said that SIAM, as the apex governing body of the Indian automobile industry will continue to engage with the government and advocate for the industry on the end of life vehicle, cleaner mobility, recycling, newer technologies and will also increase engagement with communities.
According to the experts of the panel, in the coming years, communities may get wide access and should promote the use of electric vehicles, electric cycles. They also said that the future lies in taking conscious and sustainable solutions by all the stakeholders.
Meanwhile, Debashish Sen, a key official from the West Bengal Government, who was also present at the event talked about the state government’s initiatives to make structural changes, so sustainability is woven in the cities. He described how the concept of vertical cities, cycling tracks, happy streets can bring a major change in the life of people.
Also Read: India must begin transitioning to low carbon fuels right away, auto LPG is way forward
Images: Cartist
