Mehnat Manzil
Museum | Exhibit Design
Museum of work
81% of India's workforce consists of Informal Workers. The sector is a strong economic base for our country providing services in domestic help, Maintainance work, building infrastructure, manual labour work and other skilled services (Cobblers, plumber, Gardener, Milkman, manual scavenging). Mehnat Manzil, museum of work highlights the livelihoods and work done by this informal sector. It is created in collaboration between Saath and Conflictorium. My role was to look at the Spatial navigations, Furniture and Exhibit Design.
Mehnat Manzil is located in Vasna, Ahmedabad an area where a large locality of informal workers lives. the location allows the museum to be rooted in the context of its surrounding. The narrative of the museum is divided into three levels of abstraction: from the personal, to communal, to socitals level. Which are also depicted by the black. grey and white rooms.
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2019
Team: Conflictorium & Saath
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Bioscope
One of the exhibits depicts migration through a 'bioscope' of the bygone era. The exhibit has three boxes with eye holes each. As one looks through the holes they see a three-dimensional image. If one eye is closed one can see only the rural scene and if the other is closed one can only see the urban scene.
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Manual Scavenging
An experiential exhibit that depicts the atmosphere of manholes and the lives of manual scavengers. One has to climb up and see inside the pipe to see the photograph (Photograph by Sudharak Olwe).
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Standard of Living
The idea of a standard of living is explained through the eyes of an informal worker, a cook. The installation consists of two jars of dal (lentil) soaked prior to cooking. The one on the left is what the worker would do in her kitchen and the one on the right is what she does in the employer’s kitchen. A comparison of the nutritional status of the household of the employer and worker.
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Maze
The escape from the structure of poverty and society is close to impossible. The maze exhibit shows that there isn't really any way out no matter how hard one tries.
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