The sky drew some new lines

Green and white tiredness, Lahore’s piercing July heat circles around in our bodies like the drone camera that captures the magnitude of this art or misery, cemetery or memorial, walkway or ode, documentary or poetry? We the Awami Art Collective (AAC) have installed our first major project Hum jo tareeq rahoun mein maray gaye [Those who were slain in the dark alleys]. It is situated in the historic Lawrence Garden in Lahore, also known as the Bagh e Jinnah. The old Lahore Gymkhana, now the Quaid e Azam library, an academic sanctuary for upcoming bureaucrats and civil servants, stands order to order in a classic argument. The pristine white of triangular bunting that incomprehensibly overlap and infinitely replicate each other, serving those who left us for being who they were, in belief, ideals, origin or all. The installation is a circular labyrinth which makes one walk through decades of loss in Pakistan. We have generated a holistic dataset of these misfortunes, including the most recent Peshawar incident where hundreds of children were gunned down by politically motivated militants. In Lahore’s summer breeze, the aroma of traditional ager-batis [incense sticks] flutter the bunting of December 16th, along with all the rest. Amina, a human resource officer in a gaming company, walks through and says: “I didn’t know so many had died”. The bunting is hung chronologically, along with a blueprint of the press releases that appeared in Urdu newspapers upon such atrocities, precisely; name, number, occupation and origin of the assassinated is divulged.

Things Don’t Really Exist Until You Give Them A Name

Things don’t really exist until you give them a name traces contemporary urban heritage discourses and practices across the globe. From Dar es Salaam to Berlin, via Istanbul, Flint and Kolkata, a wide range of voices connects to heritage debates. Artists, curators, and activists as well as historians, architects, planners and urban researchers address the urban heritage conundrum: Although heritage is claimed to have the power to achieve social cohesion and galvanise urban communities, it is intrinsically contested and divisive. Through fresh perspectives, concepts, methods and tools rather than a belief in absolute aesthetic and material values, this book argues for a more citizen-centred and rights-based approach to heritage which could help to make cities more just and inclusive.