Mai Kolachi and the environment around the Mai Kolachi Expressway are the locale for 1mile² Karachi, which will see four local artists - Arif Mahmood, Adeel-uz-Zafar, Fraz Abdul Mateen, and Nameera Ahmed - assisted by art critic, Shahana Rajani, mapping the biodiversity, cultural and aesthetic transformation of the area.
Mai Kolachi links Clifton with Queens Road and is located along the southern coast of the city. The building of the Expressway, which has been built on land reclaimed from a lagoon, has led to the destruction of most of the mangrove forest and disturbed the eco-system of this coastal stretch.
This project is an initiative of Visiting Arts UK (www.square-mile.net) and is hosted by NuktaArt Magazine (www.nuktaart.com) and AICA Pakistan. Starting on 1st December, it lasted 6 weeks, working along the line of similar initiatives in different world communities like Dhaka, Johannesberg and Shanghai. It aims to engage the artists with issues that pertain to the cultural and environmental context within this coastal belt. Engagement with the community has been an essential part of the project to promote social and environmental activism.
The project will culminate in an exhibition of seminal art on ecology at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, starting 23rd January. The inauguration will include a panel discussion between artists, environmental experts and the larger audience, to explore the role of arts in creating change towards environmental sustainability.