EU National Institutes for Culture - EUNIC


India

India
Moving Kolkata – Kolkata Moving
Pop-up installation “For a better tomorrow”. Photo: Rajat Dey

Moving Kolkata - Kolkata Moving explores inclusive dialogues around climate change and sustainable urban development.

One of the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations is to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. This project wants to centre their work around this goal and to encourage real engagement from people living in a city hit hard by climate change. Public space is a shared resource and a limited one in the case of Kolkata, and moreover is challenged by the adverse effects of climate change.

Moving Kolkata – Kolkata Moving (MKKM) combined aspects of climate change, sustainability, heritage, and communities – in a project where artists and communities are invited to share and co-create solutions for the future of Kolkata’s sustainable development. Moving Kolkata – Kolkata Moving explored inclusive dialogues around climate change and sustainable urban development. This project started a conversation around climate change in a city that is suffering strongly from the effects of pollution and fast urban development.

Participatory pop-ups in the city

Central to the project is the online MKKM platform (moving-kolkata.com), gathering numerous sustainability insights, a forum, and testimonies of citizens dedicatedly working to make the city better and safer for its people and the environment: the Kolkata Movers. The Kolkata Movers are activists, artists, business leaders, academics, and many more.

The "This is NOW” photo exhibition opened in September 2022 and remained open to the public for one month. The exhibition showcased works of two European photographers, Magali Couffon de Trevos from France and Alvaro Garcia from Spain, around the topic of sustainability in Kolkata and called for immediate citizen action towards a more socially inclusive and en- vironmentally responsible Kolkata, through visual awareness and eye-opening images.

For three days in October 2022 a mobile pop-up space travelled to three different locations in the city. The space was created using local sustainable material by an artist collective. The activities conducted at each location brought together institutions of Kolkata, talented artists, artists’ collectives and community-led non-governmental organisations joining hands to curate the space, contents and interventions on the theme of the day. At each location, the pop-up event focused on different topics which included recycling and sustainable fashion‚ sustainable mobility, and air pollution. The displays not only offered a number of activities planned for citizens of Kolkata to participate but also included showcasing of videos and other visual material leading to sustainable outcomes in situ and on digital platforms.

We hope to motivate people to take little steps to lead a sustainable life for a better tomorrow.

Sharmistha Sarker, Goethe-Institut Kolkata

Find more information here: moving-kolkata.com



  • Sustainability
  • Community art
  • Social inclusion
  • Climate
  • Cultural heritage
  • European Spaces of Culture

Co-funded by the European Union Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.