MAPPING DELHI: Work, Urban Space, and Memory on Textile
2021-2022, as part of the exhibition Urbane Räume: 4 Perspektiven at the Zentrum Architektur Zürich Bellerive, Zürich, Switzerland


Mapping Delhi: Work, Urban Space, and Memory on Textile employs tapestry as a medium to explore the intersections of urban environments and socially engaged art. Created by Studio Otherworlds in Kapashera, an industrial fringe area of Delhi, the project involved a collective of female migrant workers living under exploitative conditions in dense tenement neighborhoods. These barrack-like quarters were constructed by former agricultural landowners on urbanized farmland and are operated for profit. For the migrant women workers, these spaces represent a state of permanent temporariness.

The tapestry, composed of hundreds of small psychogeographic maps, serves as an embroidered "counter-cartography" of the women's habitat. It maps a network of local and global reference points, shaped by the flows of commodities, capital, and people. Simultaneously, it reflects itineraries, personal desires, subjective perceptions of the architectural environment, experiences of gendered violence, and the collective memory of the women who embroidered it.

As an act of reclaiming their living space, the cartographic tapestry narrates the stories of the place and its people. It brings to the forefront critical questions about migration, memory, gender, urban realities, and habitation. The work also prompts a deeper reflection on the concept of "fast fashion" and its sociological and spatial implications.

TEAM
Sumedha Garg
Nitin Bathla
Seven Sisters Collective (Saat Saheliyan)

ASSISTANTS
Leonie Wagner
Bhavyaa Parashar
Aishwarya Ashok

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Christian Schmid
ETH Zurich
Khoj International Artists' Association, Delhi
Hopscotch Reading Room, Berlin

This project was supported under the "Peripheries and Crossovers" programme of KHOJ International Artists' Association.