By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Chandigarh : The Rock Garden, one of the well-known symbols of this city and a hugely popular tourist spot, is all set to rock next month as it celebrates its diamond jubilee.
Conceptualised and created by Nek Chand, a man who was neither a born artist nor an engineer, the garden has stood the test of time – it was on the verge of being demolished in the mid-1970s by local authorities after it was discovered in a wooded area of this post-independence planned city.
The diamond jubilee celebrations of this unique garden, spread over 25 acres with sculptures made from waste material like broken electric plugs and switches, discarded and broken tea sets, toilet seats and flush tanks, will take place Nov 7-11 and will include art conferences and sculpture workshops.
The Britain-based Nek Chand Foundation, his fans and supporters from the US and other countries and the Chandigarh administration are jointly holding the events at the Rock Garden.
While Nek Chand began working on the garden in the late 50’s, city authorities discovered his art work only in 1975. And though the years don’t add up to 60, the foundation has decided to hold the celebrations this year itself.
“The celebrations will include an international folk art conference in which artists and performers from France, Britain, Canada, Australia, Vietnam, India and Denmark will participate,” Nek Chand Foundation trustee Tony Rajer said here.
The event will also have a sculpture workshop that will be supervised by US-based artist-designer Nancey Saghetti, Nek Chand and others.
Nek Chand, who turns 83 next month, enjoys honorary citizenship in the US and in the city of Paris for his creativity. And he is overjoyed about the diamond jubilee celebration of his creation.
“This place (Rock Garden) was discovered by the local authorities a full 18 years after I started working on creating things from waste material in a forested area north of Chandigarh’s residential sectors. I am happy today that my creation is acknowledged worldwide,” a visibly happy Nek Chand told IANS.
Being a road inspector in this city – planned and executed after the country’s independence in 1947 as a symbol of a modern resurgent India – Nek Chand toiled hard with his creations amid official apathy for years to get it acknowledged internationally.
He used to work on his creations at night – burning cycle tyres for light – so that no one would notice him. “I used to do my job as road inspector during the day,” Nek Chand recalled.
But for the global fame of Rock Garden, Chandigarh would never have got international recognition on such a big scale. The garden was formally thrown open to the public in 1976 and has enjoyed great support from Chandigarh residents and visitors coming here.
The garden is today a dream world of its own, showcasing creations like village scenes, waterfalls, tunnels, humans and animals – all from waste material.
Nek Chand’s office inside the Rock Garden complex even now gets loads of waste material collected by schoolchildren, common people and even companies to be put to good use in his ever-expanding creation.
“I get waste material and discarded things from all over the region,” he points out, showing some heaps of waste material lying outside his office.
Last year volunteers from Britain came to the garden twice to manually carry out restoration work on Nek Chand’s creations that had been vandalised with graffiti and physically damaged in some cases.