Pune-based Malayali artist P K Nandakumar, teaching at the Mahindra United World College, had come to his native Kozhikode recently with the idea of putting up a work at India's first-ever biennale in this city. He travelled across the place, but failed to find a suitable locale - and had given up when the about-turn happened.
"I visited Mattanchery. Up from the Dutch Palace there, I saw the Pazhayannur Devi Temple below - and then a piece of neglected plot," Nandakumar recalls. "It was scrubby; it had a pond. I knew I had found it."
Today, three weeks into the biennale, the artist is lending vibrancy to the plot that measures a little over one acre. Before the art extravaganza ends on March 13 this year, the land will have paddy cultivation carpeting it besides a garden of plants and trees alongside a decked-up water body.
The presumed toil apart, Nandakumar did face hurdles in executing his ideas.
The Cochin Devaswom Board that owns the plot rolled out its set of riders: no permanent structure in it can be dismantled, not even a nail can be drilled into its walls. Also, no snake inside would be killed while clearing the bush. The artist agreed to it all, thus secured the authority's nod.
With assistance from an architect relative N M Rakesh, he began the land rejuvenation project titled 'Vitha', meaning 'sow' in his mother tongue Malayalam. Support also came from local people and employees of the temple besides the Corporation of Cochin.
Vendors in the locality are happy. "For three decades, I've been running my shop. This is the first time I get a view of the neighbourhood plot," says K S Navas, a shopkeeper. "Looking that side makes me happy."