Untitled: Goethe Institute Delhi

The Goethe-Institut has been working with artists from across the globe to create Graphic Travelogues, a digital platform dedicated to comics, focusing on the subject of travel since 2019.Taking this journey to another dimension, Goethe-Institut and St+art launched an open call to invite one German and one Indian artist to collaboratively work on two murals – one here in Delhi’s Lodhi Art District and the other in Kannagi Art District, Chennai.The selected artists, Greta Von Richtofen and Aashti Miller, were encouraged to work on thought-provoking ideas about the meaning of ‘travel’ from a broad lens. During the unprecedented time of the pandemic, when physical travel and any kind of free movement was halted, they found themselves tucked away with their thoughts, and were transported to an ocean of imagination. Thus, the artists explore the idea of ‘traveling in the mind’ through these murals – seen as a journey that anyone can make, regardless of culture, background, or spatial limitations.

The flying and running fish, and birds playfully depict different ways of traveling: over water, in

the air and on land. This journey seeks to emphasize the sense of discovery that traveling

entails, relaying how crucial it is to cultivate inclusive and diverse perspectives – in order to

have an enriching and meaningful experience of life at large. Therefore, from an expansive lens

to a site-specific one, the artists include hyper-localised elements that become symbolic of this

journey.

Depicting local flora and fauna, traditional and historical elements inspired by Mughal

architecture, and fantastical creatures - the work further explores travel to one’s past, through a shared nostalgia. Similarly, in Chennai the artists make references to the city through a localised and engaging vocabulary.The murals differ in color and motifs, but connect to one another by showcasing the positive power and immense possibilities of imagination and creativity, which enters the mind in Chennai and flows out of the hands in Delhi. This conceptual connection thus ‘travels’ across two diverse cities.

As we all recover and return to the new normal, we might be fish out of water, but Miller and Richthofen believe that their explorations have taught them to embrace this discomfort and translate it into a magical journey.