Milan Rai
Milan Rai is a conceptual artist who works across social situations, interventions, architecture, urban ecology, community-building, as well as local government.
Eco Social Art Practice
My creative resistance to address environmental issues collided with unjust systems and caused disruption. I encountered obstacles, systematic barriers and learned to reflect and respond to these problems mindfully. My artistic research with lived experiences helped my own understanding of relational aesthetics, eco-social art practice ,urban politics, power dynamics, social structures.
I arrived here with a leap of faith. In this discovery- driven process, I gained perspective and developed zen habits to stay in flow / to be with the chaos in a relaxed way. These productive tensions, are opening up generative questions , appreciative inquiries and lateral thinking to identify the challenges ,relevant methods and socio-material practises for the urban future. Now I am manoeuvring new directions with reflection on where we are going now how we get there? and how far we are from what ought to be.
Blog
My blogging evolved slowly as a means to collate my process based eco-social art practice.
Here, I share curatorial essays , stories , eco-sophies , ideas and things that are happening behind the scenes.
ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME
Three years ago, I did tree plantations, involving communities with the idea of social sculpture. It was conceived after I stumbled upon a group of elderly people singing devotional songs beneath a tree. I joined them and listened to their conversation that ranged...
Landscape Architecture
I spend countless hours observing the site conditions and immerse myself in the atmospheric blending of light, shadow, forms, gusts, and acoustic surround. I marvel at the intricacies of grasses and the heaven-sent petrichor. Such contemplation or drifting...
Urban Ecology
We have a tendency to negatively judge the spontaneous vegetation plants that grow without human intent. Indeed, most of the plants that I chose are dismissed as unkempt weeds. I insisted and challenged society’s blind acceptance and cultural perception, I fought and...