SWISS BENCH ART Have you ever sat on the benches painted with different magical colours? If not then visit Ravindra Bharathi and enjoy yourself by sitting on the colourfully decorated benches done by the students of the city. The 26 benches which are brought from Switzerland are kept as part of the Swiss Bench Art Exhibition which will be open to the public till November 12. Students from different colleges have painted on the benches on a variety of themes. Ramayana, nature, space flights, the Taj Mahal, woods, lambada women, great mall of Hyderabad to aquariums - the themes are aplenty. Each bench painted by a group of 10 students would be auctioned at a function at Grand Kakatiya Sheraton Hotel on November 12 at 6:30 pm in the presence of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Tourism Minister E. Peddi Reddy and Ambassador of Switzerland in India Walter Gyger. "Fifty per cent of the proceeds of the auction will go to charitable institutions and the remaining 50 percent on heritage development", Tourism Secretary Chandana Khan said. "The bid base for the bench art would be Rs 10,000. Several corporate houses had been invited to participate in the bid" she added. You might be wondering about this art of painting on the benches. And why not? This type of art is something new and is being done for the first time in Hyderabad. But why these benches were brought to Hyderabad all the way from Switzerland? "There had been a severe storm in Zurich some time ago in which many trees were uprooted. Locals then turned the wood into benches. The Switzerland government decided to provide these benches for theme painting under a project to India, particularly Hyderabad", said Chandana Khan explaining about the project. About 260 students from twenty six schools participated in the competition which was organised jointly by the Tourism and Culture Department and government of Switzerland. The three schools that would emerge winners will be given a computer each and seven other best schools will be given special prizes from the Swiss government. The money thus raised through the proceedings would be equally shared by the Cultural and Heritage fund and some charitable trusts. -Text and photographs by MAR Fareed |

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