What happens when a thousand oil cans decide to fly?

Jugaad explored this idea through a celebratory and constantly evolving process of re-purposing
and redefining the cooking oil can. The project borrows its name from a hindi term which refers to attaining any objective with the available resources at hand. Over a period of three months, discarded oil cans were used as a vehicle to explore ideas of sustainability, recycling and re-purposing with 90 other residents from Rajokri, an urban village in New Delhi. Using grass root ingenuity, Jugaad reincarnated 945 such cans into a free-standing shade canopy spread over 70 square metres.

Jugaad was first exhibited at 48°C public art festival held in New Delhi from 12th to 21st December 2008 and was supported by khoj, the Goethe Institute and the German Technical Cooperation. The project has been critically acclaimed in numerous publications worldwide and has recently been published in 'Limited Language: rewriting design: responding to a feedback culture'. Jugaad has also been selected for the AR Emerging Architecture awards 2009.

For comments from curator please click here

For artist statement please click here

 

 

 

 

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photo credits: Sundeep Bali and Adam Roney