Johny ML
Lado Sarai : Art District or a Street of Galleries?
Analyzing the spatial logistics of Lado Sarai and Hauz Khas, gallerists’ dilemmas and the much lacking community ‘feeling’ required for the evolution of any art district, JohnyML highlights the pros and cons of just a street with a lot of galleries versus an actual functioning thriving art districtin New Delhi. Can Lado Sarai be the Art District of Delhi? When galleries started moving to this inconspicuous street in South West Delhi, almost three years back, at least some die-hard Delhi lovers thought of calling it Delhi’s future art district and they found in it an answer to Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda/Colaba art district. There was a time when Mumbaikars were happy with their Jehangir Art Gallery and a few other private galleries in the vicinity while the Delhiites were equally happy in their own Lalit Kala Akademi at Mandi House, Art Heritage and Triveni, a stone’s throw away from there, Dhoomimal at Connaught Place and AIFACS at Rafi Marg.

When openings shifted gear from ‘Samosa-chai’ to ‘Wine and Cheese’, our outlook also had to change. We started talking of art districts. For so many years art lovers in Delhi took pride in Hauz Khas Village, a village within a city. Low rentals and ethnic appeal were the two factors that attracted the art entrepreneurs to this village. Increasing footfall resulted in increasing rents; newly found affluence of landlords resulted in the barricading of the village. The exodus from Hauz Khas
started with the skyrocketing of rents, congestion, poor facilities and stringent government laws in the form of sealing ‘misused’ properties. Somewhere in between, towards the end of the 1990s, there was an effort to revive Shahpur Jat, another village near Siri Fort in South Delhi, as the next art hub. After showing an initial promise it disappeared without even a whimper. Lado Sarai, today, does not look like an art district. The narrow road that runs parallel to the main Mehrauli – Badarpur road is what people know as the ‘Lado Sarai Street’. Till a few years back, this was a laid back village with old patriarchs ruling the slow life before them from their sagging charpoys. Sipping at the gurgling hookahs you may see them even today, but now protecting their newly purchased Audis and other SUVs. Rents have gone high here also, spurring up construction activities, making room for newer clients to set up shops while the landlords move to higher floors,
leaving the street open mostly for the young members of the native village families who, with their muscle power, either restrict the inflow of traffic or control the spaces available for parking. One could see the slow unraveling of a Hauz Khas story here too.

However, we need not be too pessimistic about it. When Mamta Singhania moved to Lado Sarai, during the peak years of the Indian art market boom, she was the only gallerist in the street. The so-called ‘footfall’ had stopped at the Kashmir Carpet Emporium at the beginning of the street. White folks never ventured further till Anant Art Gallery came up. Art lovers in Delhi received the opening of the Anant Art Gallery with a sense of disbelief; for them it was a ‘far away’ place. However, the sprawling exhibition space that ran room after room impressed the people and Mamta was ambitious enough to open another gallery in her NOIDA factory premises. But unfortunately, she was the first one to move out of Lado Sarai, not for the reasons of recession, but due to some personal reasons. Anant Art Gallery paved the way, and the rest followed suit. Rasika Kajaria’s Exhibit 320 made its mark with some well-curated shows and the common Lado Sarai Night
opening became quite a crowd puller. “I like the ambience of Lado Sarai street,” gushes Kajaria. “If the galleries were in a posh street, the common people would show some inhibition to get in and have a look. But here, the doors are open to the streets and people are always welcomed in. Besides, Lado Sarai today is internationally known and the gentry that visits here is very focused,” says Kajaria. View of Lado Sarai Art Market, Photography by Gireesh GV View of Lado Sarai Art Market, Photography by Gireesh