A Mumbai slum that houses around a million people is to get its own portable design museum.
The project, the "Design Museum Dharavi" is the brainchild of Spanish artist Jorge Rubio. It is inspired by the thousands of workers and craftsmen who inhabit the 535-acre "informal settlement" in the Indian city.
He told Agence France Press: "Despite the tough conditions the people of Dharavi live in, they are capable of creating, designing, manufacturing and commercializing all kinds of goods.
"We believe that the objects made in Dharavi could be as valuable as those collected by design museums. Inspiration and creativity can be found virtually everywhere."
The museum hopes to challenge "our perception of ‘slums, favelas, barriadas, ghettos’ on a global scale".
The museum will be placed on wheels and every week for two months it will move to a new location. In this way, according to Rubio, it will reflect "the nomadic nature from thousands of workers and craftsmen who will have the chance to display their skills and take their work to a next level".
The museum is not meant to just be an exhibition venue, it will also be a "flexible meeting point where individuals can showcase their skills, find potential clients, teach workshops to the rest of the community and take their own practice one step further".
The project is supported by the Creative Industries Fund of the Netherlands.
Dharavi is the setting for the 2008 Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire.
The museum is due to open next month, with a complete agenda "coming soon".
Images via Design Museum Dharavi
