“One overcast day in September, thirteen people who identify themselves as transwomen, picked up paintbrushes and in just ten days transformed a dusty building site into the brightest corner on one of Bangalore’s busiest roads. 

The vivacious and colorful mural called ‘The Story of Bangalore’ was designed and painted by the Aravani Art Project, a collective that uses public art and wall art projects to spotlight the relationship between transwomen and women in public spaces. The Project was commissioned by the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), whose flagship building is just being built and will open to the public sometime next year. Hugging a corner of MAP’s building site, the mural captures the myriad communities that live and breathe in the vibrant, urban landscape of the city—from migrant workers who have built the glass-facade buildings in the city’s technology parks to the IT workforce that populate them,  Bengaluru’s techies who have arrived here from different parts of the country and the world. The city’s traffic cops are also instantly recognizable in the mural with their distinctive cowboy hats, standing companionably alongside a person from the trans community. The entire artwork visually weaves together the stories and aspirations of hundreds of people who have made Bengaluru their home.”

Read the full story on the Aravani Art Project’s mural here.