The six part
quilt titled Let Love Bloom an initiative
by Sunapranta –Goa Centre for the Arts has been welcomed by visitors to the
site. Tourists from all over the country visit the church to seek blessings.
The quilt brings together over 3000 narratives of Hope, Love, Trust, Friendship
and most importantly, coming together as a community to rebuild, to reconstruct
and to remain resilient in the face of the global pandemic.
Suresh S and his wife who have been travelling around the state
for the past three days said it was wonderful to see something like this. He
said “This is the festive season and it is about love, forgiveness, family and
community and all those positive sentiments. All religions promote the same
sentiments so to have it on the exterior of the church is fine I feel”. For
Ramesh Singh from UP who was present with his family, it was a wonderful sight.
He said “I took a photo of the entire quilt without realising there were
messages on them until my wife and daughter pointed it out to me. The messages
are very positive, they talk about positive sentiments. It is very good.” For
Ramesh Shah the message about the importance of one’s mother which was one of
the messages on the quilt caught his eye. His daughter Sonia said it was
wonderful to see such initiatives and the beauty and the sheer size of it made
it unforgettable.
Eminent artist Subodh
Kerker said it was absolutely beautiful and this was the best thing to have
happened to the Panjim area. He said he was very thrilled with it and it was a
great work of art and congratulated Sunaprata as well as the Mayor for allowing
such a thing. Subodh said “Many times church authorities or Panjim authorities
don’t allow such a thing. Art has always been connected with the church and I
am very happy the church took a very good stand and allowed it. I am almost
jealous, wondering why I did not think about it.”
The people behind
Sunaparanta in a statement said Let Love Bloom is a collaborative project
between the Panjim Church and Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts. It involves
thousands of handmade expressions of love stitched together, and is designed to
bring hope to all and belief in a better, resilient tomorrow. Sunaparanta has
been dedicated to nurturing the creative ecosystem of Goa since its inception.
The same philosophy is integrated in all our projects and has been applied to
this project which is in collaboration with the Panjim Church. The quilts have
been placed along the walls of the steps leading to the Church (not on its
building façade as you mentioned) taking their inspiration from its history,
design and architecture. The work is a result of a community engagement project
involving people from diverse groups, and mostly children. The church steps are
open to all, welcoming every individual to experience this unique, memorable
and, what is today, one of Goa’s largest collaborative and inclusive
initiatives. Community projects, especially those involving children, unite
people across borders and ideologies. Several people have had an incredibly
challenging and difficult year full of hardships and sadness, and these
handmade expressions from so many people personally affected by the Covid
pandemic offer some solace to all Goans in these unprecedented times. Amen to
that.
However nor everyone
was very keen on the project. Heta Pandit heritage activist in a statement said
everyone applauded the work of art but she did not agree with the manner in
which the exhibition had been put up. She said art exhibitions should be in
secular open spaces and damaging the historic OUR LADY OF MARY IMMACULATE CHURCH
in Panaji was not acceptable. The frames, she said, should have been free
standing without any damage to the walls. She felt the exhibition should be
moved to a secular public place. A resident of the UK now in Goa, Zico X
Rodrigues felt the idea of the quilt and the message was a great initiative,
but not on the retaining walls of the Immaculate Conception Church. He felt it
looked like someone had spat paan or thrown up on the walls. He said “This is a
desecration of the church and the monument, below the curtain they have caused
irreversible damage to the structure to hold those metal frames. Negligence and
no respect to heritage are the key reason for this bad decision from the
organisers. God save the Immaculate Conception Church”. Avelino de Sa said “ However
good the intention of the exhibition, there is a time and place for everything.
Our ancestors painted the churches white with a purpose. White signifies
purity. What does multicolor signify??? Our church is colourful?? Where is the
sanctity of our church??? Why put a painting exhibition on our church walls?”.
There will always be people with differing views and this
episode is no exception.
