Asian Paints and St+art present Colour Corridor, a vibrant, immersive walkway reflecting the soul of Kolkata

 

Kolkata: Drawing from the everyday life and the deep cultural spirit of the city, Asian Paints and St+art India present the Colour Corridor in Ballygunge as part of the St+art Kolkata Festival 2025–26. Conceived as a walk-through art tunnel, the Colour Corridor is a vibrant, immersive mural spread across nearly 8,200 square feet of the lane, inviting people to experience colour not as a backdrop, but as a living, breathing presence within the neighbourhood. Designed to become part of Ballygunge’s daily life, the mural reflects Kolkata’s layered identity, where art, conversation, and community seamlessly come together.

 

As part of the inaugural St+art Kolkata Festival, supported by Asian Paints, the project unfolds through a series of public art interventions across Ballygunge in South Kolkata. Drawing from the city’s long-standing adda and rowak culture, the festival explores the idea of a ‘third space’, one that enables sharing, connection, and everyday belonging. Among the core installations is the Colour Corridor inspired by Chromacosm, a repository of over 5,300 shades by Asian Paints. Alongside these is an indoor exhibition at the TRI Art & Culture Centre, developed in collaboration with TRI Art & Culture and supported by KCT Group CSR. Together, these elements transform familiar neighbourhood spaces into shared experiences where people can gather, pause, reflect, and find a sense of belonging in the city.

 

The Colour Corridor is a colour passageway that wraps visitors in colour, light, and movement. Created by Sayan Mukherjee, the Colour Corridor is conceived as a sensorial welcome zone, it invites people to slow down, feel, and encounter art as part of their everyday path. Drawing inspiration from Chromacosm, Asian Paints’ multisensory exploration of how colour shapes mood, memory, and movement, the installation brings these ideas into a tactile experience that Kolkata can walk through.

 

The corridor also features a specially written Bengali poem, voiced in the accompanying film, a lyrical tribute to Kolkata’s heartbeat. Together, the installation’s physical presence and the conceptual depth of Chromacosm create an experience that makes colour feel alive and meaningful. It shows that colour is more than an aesthetic; it is a language through which cities express themselves and communities find connection.

 

The indoor exhibition at TRI Art & Culture Centre brings together immersive works by ten artists to explore how the lines between home and street often blend in a city like Kolkata. Among the key installations is Where Colour Finds Its Apex by artist Akash Raj Halankar, inspired by Chromacosm. Through the use of colour and form, the installation reimagines how exhibition spaces are experienced, navigated, and shared. Composed of pyramids in varying scales and intensities, the installation treats colour not as decoration, but as something that shapes the space and how it is experienced.

 

The exhibition reimagines everyday space; a typographic intervention in Bengali is further brought to life through augmented reality across the TRI façade, large soft bed becomes a place for gathering, a kitchen turns into a space of scent and memory, and familiar sayings appear as visual invitations. Using colour, texture, sound, and smell, the exhibition creates environments that feel both personal and shared. It invites visitors to reflect on how we find connection and belonging in contemporary cities, where private and public worlds constantly overlap.

 

The Third Space: Ballygunge Art Project emerges from a collaboration of over a decade between Asian Paints and St+art India Foundation. Rooted in a shared commitment to taking art beyond galleries and into the everyday life of the city, the partnership has been guided by the ethos of #ArtforAll. Over the years, it has shaped public art districts and interventions across India, including projects in Lodhi, Mahim, Nochi, and other neighbourhoods, transforming overlooked corners into places that bring joy into public life. The St+art Kolkata Festival extends this ongoing dialogue, encouraging people to inhabit art rather than simply observe it. Each intervention is conceived as a lived space: somewhere to sit, converse, pause, and feel connected.

 

With interventions now unfolding across Ballygunge until January 15, St+art Kolkata 2025 invites citizens to rediscover their city through the lens of art. From tactile installations to poetic murals, every gesture celebrates Kolkata as a place where creativity thrives not in isolation, but in community - where the line between daily life and artistic expression dissolves into one living, breathing conversation.

 

Mr. Amit Syngle, MD & CEO, Asian Paints Ltd., says, “Kolkata has always been a city that expresses itself through art, colour, and conversation. For Asian Paints, our connection with this city runs deep, shaped by decades of engaging with its artists, craftspeople, and communities. Every project here has strengthened our belief that art doesn’t just transform spaces, it brings people together, encourages dialogue and makes everyday moments more meaningful. With St+art Kolkata and ADDA: The Third Space, we are delighted to bring art directly into the neighbourhoods of Ballygunge, turning familiar public spaces into places of pause, interaction, and shared experience. Our integration, Chromacosm, adds another dimension to this vision by showing how colour can influence emotion, memory and belonging. This festival continues our long-standing journey with St+art India Foundation to make creativity a part of public life, turning colour and imagination into a language that connects people to their city and to each other.”

 

Giulia Ambrogi, Co-Founder and Chief Curator, St+art India Foundation, says, “Each edition of St+art reimagines how cities can host art, not as spectacle, but as an everyday experience that belongs to everyone. Kolkata’s culture of dialogue and collective exchange makes it a natural home for this idea. St+art Kolkata is an attempt to listen to the city’s pulse, its adda culture, and to translate that into spaces where art and life meet seamlessly. Through ADDA: The Third Space and interventions across the city, we hope to blur the boundaries between home and street, intimacy and public life. We thank Asian Paints, TRI Art and Culture, KCT Group, and the artists whose support and vision make this journey possible, reminding us how art can become sites of empathy and shared belonging in cities.”

 

Madeleine St. John, Director, TRI Art & Culture, says, “By bridging the street and the gallery, ADDA: The Third Space curated by St+art marks a significant step in TRI Art & Culture’s mission to democratise art, celebrate Kolkata’s cultural vitality, and cultivate community through creativity and sensory engagement. The TRI team is delighted to host artists from across the country as they create site-specific installations across our heritage property, and to share the hybrid futures they imagine with the TRI community.”