Foundation Chandigarh’s first event at Open Hand Monument celebrated the iconic site with talks by celebrated guests, photo exhibition, music and musings

The Capitol Complex, the pictures of which have been part of many photography exhibitions, became the venue for one such exhibition on Saturday. A welcome change as it gave the city folks a chance to witness the iconic site in its full splendour.

To activate and celebrate the public spaces of City Beautiful, Foundation Chandigarh in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and the Global Humanities Initiative, organised an exhibition of photographs by architect and urbanist Noor Dasmesh Singh at the Tower of Shadow of the Complex.

The exhibition, which was the first chapter of Foundation Chandigarh, saw the participations of distinguished guests from India and abroad.


Pit of Contemplation at the Open Hand Monument became a place of convergence not just for the city's elite but also students, academia and architecture enthusiasts as Manish Tewari, Member of Parliament, MP Chandigarh UT and international arbitrator, along with Christopher Turner- head, Architecture and  Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, took the podium.

Manish Tewari mentioned that it was his first visit to the Open Hand Monument though he was born and brought up in the city. Tewari made a strong a point when he said that a city should not become a museum but it should celebrate diversity and also preserve its heritage. “As citizens, we must apply ourselves to find a midway where we keep growing as a city, celebrate our diversity, preserve heritage but also take care of our needs and aspirations.” He added that events like this would make the city's landmarks more accessible to the masses.

Christopher Turner, in his brief talk, made a point about how the European architects got name and fame for designing the city but Indians who actually built it were sidelined. Speaking after the event, Turner, who has visited Chandigarh a number of times, shared, “We need another museum to celebrate architects and engineers who did the actual work.”

Turner added, “I think Corbusier got all the credit while he flew to Chandigarh only twice a year. His cousin Pierre Jeannette was his man on ground. I met architects who actually worked, like SD Sharma and Jeet Malhotra. They are full of energy. Malhotra at 90 talked about his plans of founding a university. If that's not dynamism, I don't know what is.”


Turner, who saw the Capitol Complex at night for the first time, like many of us, talked about the model of Governor's Palace, which was never built in Chandigarh, on display at Victoria & Albert Museum. Turner hopes to have a Chandigarh Manhole Cover for his collection. “At least, I got a model of it,” he said as a replica of it was presented to him by the Foundation.

The exhibition by Noor Dasmesh Singh that showcased about 20 photographs and installation enthralled the guests. Imposing structures, water bodies, coloured pillars of the High Court, human figures standing in front of those tall pillars capturing the contrast (and the Capitol Complex) — the exhibits led to animated talks among those present as they tried to place the real structures in those frames.

Dreamy rays from the setting sun on the horizon, mellifluous notes coming from artiste Sukhwant's violin, and colourful frames set against naked concrete made the entire atmosphere surreal.

The event also saw a panel discussion called Making of Chandigarh at Le Corbusier Centre that had Shruti Kapila, professor, University of Cambridge, Sangeeta Bagga, principal, Chandigarh College of Architecture, Yojana Rawat, professor, Centre for Distance and Online Education, Punjab University, Chandigarh and Christopher Turner. Prof Kapila, who is also part of the Global Humanities Initiative, spoke about the need to learn from the past.

Noor Dashmesh Singh talked about his Foundation's mission, “Architecture and fragments of urban quarters become only meaningful once they are inhabited and celebrated by the citizens on a daily basis, not when they are distant and out of reach. We must reclaim our public spaces. These glorious urban spaces need to be activated and animated on a regular basis to become part of an active city life. People should be able to wander around – walk, jog and idle around soaking the spirit of modernist legacy. Let art, culture, architecture may enrich and shape our lives meaningfully.”