The Story of A Canal is aimed at researching, experimenting, and creating an artwork collectively by incorporating specific characteristics of the transforming ecology and socio-cultural life happening around the Kalagachia Khal (canal) which flows through Khudiram Pally in Sarsuna, Kolkata. The site-specific public artwork was made over the canal, once meant for irrigation on agricultural land, and now used as a drain for carrying off sewage. Even though the existence of the canal faces threats from a rapidly increasing housing problem, invasive species, and garbage, traces of the canal still remain visible at Khudiram Pally.

On both sides of the canal, about 200 families subsist and survive, amounting to a population of more than 600. The families living there are mostly immigrants from Sundarban, Bangladesh, and Bihar who came to this land due to environmental catastrophes, political persecution, or to find work for a living. Therefore, it is a habitat of multiple cultural identities with diverse memories and practices.

The people of the site have many stories to tell. Our project tries to incorporate the stories of their past and present struggles, suffering, and hope. The dialogue between art and people, which we intended to initiate through the project, will not just be vocal and performative but also have dialogue in terms of the existing materiality of life at the site.