Chandigarh
24 November 2020
DIVYA AZAD
Amidst all the negativity, insecurity and danger around us these days, one ray of sunshine seems enough to boost up the morale. We missed meeting people, exchanging ideas, joining hands and what not. Similarly, this COVID-19 outbreak definitely became a hindrance for the artists to reach out to their admirers too. Art galleries were closed, art exhibitions were put on hold, no one knew for how long. So many policies were formed to reform the situation for people at different levels, but the sphere of artists remained almost untouched, globally.
That’s how a small community of artists on Whatsapp took this big decision to do something for the art world in different parts of India and across the globe.
Rajesh Batra, the man behind International Art & Imagination Forum, wanted to give back to the community of artists in a way that their art gets admired not only in their own regions, but also beyond borders and boundaries.
“We have been working with designers, visual artists, illustrators, editors, writers from different parts of India and abroad. All these creative minds are the base of my venture and when this Covid situation arrived, I observed how severely it impacted the economic livelihoods and morale of these artisans,” said Rajesh.
With his small Whatsapp community that has a few artists and art admirers as members, Rajesh decided to revive the motivation of such artisans, for whom this pandemic became a huge obstacle in their financial survival.
And, he did this by creating World Record with 2800 artists from different parts of India and abroad. W-LOC, which is World’s Largest Online Creativity Event received a World Record Certificate from World Book Of Records, London.
The virtual art forum witnessed some of the most iconic pieces of art from leading artists being displayed in a virtual gallery that has been specially designed for IAIF. W-LOC also witnessed highly interactive panel discussions from leading names in the industry like Padma Shri Ms Shovana Narayan Ji, Mr Subhir Malik, founder of the Indie Rock Band Parikrama, Mr Paul Syng, creative director at Contend among others.
Another concern that compelled Rajesh to come up with W-LOC is about the Indian art forms on the verge of extinction.
“IAIF was created with a focus to uplift and preserve arts on the verge of extinction across India and other parts of the world. Their survival was impacted even before the outbreak and the pandemic made the situation even worse for them. So, with this IAIF Art Gallery, we are trying to trace such art forms, bring opportunity to them and give them a platform to engage and showcase their work to a well-targeted global audience. Every artist can send his/her artwork directly to the buyer without giving any commission to the intermediate platform,” explained Rajesh.
Also, Mr Bheem Malhotra, Honorary Chairman of the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi, also congratulated Rajesh for creating this world record along and initiating a platform for the artists during these tough times.
“I am glad to be associated with this historic movement to celebrate the raw talent from across generations and genres,” said Bheem.
Meanwhile, Neerajj Mittra, Creative Director of W-LOCand founder of NM Artistry Spreading Smiles and Co-Founder & Chief Art Strategist Gallery: Art’est- An Art Abode, said, “Being an artist myself, I understood the opportunity that this event would bring to people who are skilled but do not know how to use them in the right direction. The sphere of this event turned out to be more than what we had expected. That enthusiasm that we saw on the faces of artists during panel discussions and after making the world record fills me with immense happiness.
