Asian Paints, in partnership with the St+art India Foundation, has unveiled the St+art Kolkata Festival 2025–26, introducing ADDA: The Third Space – Ballygunge Art Project, a large-scale public art initiative spread across South Kolkata’s Ballygunge neighbourhood.
Rooted in Kolkata’s iconic adda and rowak culture, the festival reimagines everyday public spaces as shared zones of dialogue, connection and belonging. The concept of the ‘third space’-areas that exist between home and work-comes alive through murals, installations and immersive experiences placed across streets, facades and community corners. Alongside the outdoor interventions, an indoor exhibition is being hosted at the TRI Art & Culture Centre, developed in collaboration with TRI Art & Culture and supported by KCT Group CSR.
A standout installation is the Colour Corridor by artist Sayan Mukherjee. Drawing inspiration from Asian Paints’ Chromacosm, the corridor blends light, movement and spatial design into a sensory walkthrough, accompanied by a specially commissioned Bengali poem. The experience is further enhanced by a typographic façade by street artist KHATRA and augmented reality elements across TRI’s exterior and interiors.
The indoor exhibition brings together works by ten artists, exploring the blurred boundaries between private homes and public life in Kolkata. Using colour, sound, texture and scent, familiar domestic settings are transformed into collective spaces shaped by memory and social interaction.
Building on successful collaborations in Lodhi, Mahim and Nochi, the project reinforces Asian Paints’ long-standing commitment to community-driven art. The St+art Kolkata Festival 2025–26 will run across Ballygunge until January 15, inviting citizens to engage with art as part of everyday urban life.
