Mumbai: Soon after the Pulwama attack, when the nation had barely processed the news of its gruesome details, social media, including WhatsApp was flooded with vitriolic messages about revenge.
Recently, a poster was released in the public domain, with the words ‘Stop Hate’.
These were the words coming from a team of artists who call themselves the ‘2020 Group’, who have come together to artistically dispel hatred and spread the message of peace and brotherhood with their campaign – Posters Unite.
A poster from the campaign. Credit: Special arrangement
The group consists of several leading and young artists, architects, filmmakers, cultural administrators and live-art practitioners, who wish to remain individually anonymous. Everyday, one of them makes a poster which is shared on the group’s website and social media handle – which, then, organically gets shared further.
The group wishes to remain anonymous as it claims it wants to highlight “the collective nature of the initiative.” However, the website does lists some artists and illustrators like Jesal Kapadia, Meera Devidayal, Orijit Sen, Shilpa Gupta, Gayatri Kodikal and Gautam Benegal, among others.
The posters – some complex and some with very simple illustrations – convey the core messages of peace and harmony, though they also reflect more specific issues at times, such as communal harmony, the right to love, food choices, cultural expression, agrarian crisis, adivasi rights and labour rights.
Around 35 posters have been created and shared on social media since the initiative was started – each one with a distinctive message of peace. One poster, designed on a white-washed wall, has a hand holding a small brick with the word “Insaniyat (humanity)” embossed on it.
Also read: Under Banner of ‘Artists Unite’, More Than 450 Signatories Speak out Against Hate
Another group member explains how the first poster after the Pulwama attack – a black background with the only words that made sense at the time: ‘Stop Hate’ – was put together.
“Since our campaign had been live for a few weeks, we already had a long line-up of posters. We had beautiful images produced by artists who brought to bear anger, hurt, thought and hope through the posters they had designed. But nothing seemed adequate as a response to what was unfolding after the loss of 40 soldiers. At that point, the group decided to put out a simple yet effective message – stop hate,” explains one of the artists from the group.
The initiative has released a poster a day since January 26 and has been appealing people to share the artwork on social media and on the street. “We are hoping to take this project to the general public beyond the social media space too,” one of the core team members told The Wire.
A poster from the campaign. Credit: Special arrangement
“The response has been immense. The posters have succeeded in raising curiosity and we are glad that our message for peace, dignity and equality has resonated with the general public.”
The same artists have also organised an awareness parade on March 2 called Artists Unite.
“It is essential that the concerns are also made visible on the street. The current culture and politics of hate is unacceptable. We are hoping to provoke dialogue through our artistic endeavours,” a 2020 group representative explained. During the four-hour event, the organisers plan to bring together over 1,000 performers in the form of a “long take-to-the-streets juloos”.
Similarly, other cities across India, including New Delhi and Bengaluru, will have their own awareness parades called Artists Unite on March 2. The events aims to bring together artists and writers committed to going out into the public and speaking, performing and singing for democracy against hate.
In New Delhi, the artists and performers will move into 15 August Park at Red Fort to build the infrastructure for the ‘Chalo Lal Qila’ event over the weekend. More than 200 artists and writers will be a part of it.