Date: 3-5 Nov 2018
Venue: Gunehar Village, Bir billing

Amidst the jungles of Bir in Himachal Pradesh, a certain Frank Schlichtmann curated an art project that is not to hang on the wall or display in hotel lobby. It was to experience through eyes, ears and the other senses. He called it In The Woods or ITW- 2. This was part of the Tigarth Festival  and we travelled from Delhi to witness this mind-blowing extravaganza.

Frank also runs the establishments 4Rooms and 4Tables at Gunehar Village about 70 km from Dharamshala.

4Rooms

Being through and through city people we had only seen mud houses. This time we lived in one – 4Rooms. Tucked in the cool Gunehar village in Himachal, 4Rooms is a designer mud house with all modern facilities. Including a bath tub. We soaked in all the fantabulous luxuries – material as well as cerebral – that this property had to offer. Trivia – while we drove up this time, next trip we are going to hop on the overnight government bus that plies straight from Delhi to Bir that is 5 minutes from this place.

4Tables

4Rooms is associated with 4Tables. Frank Schlichtmann has started an art cafe in Gunehar village few hours up Dharamshala, Himachal. He offers amazing food, continental stuff, fun breakfasts. Saturday evenings are for cinema along with wood fire baked pizza made right in front of you here. We are already getting sentimental thinking about the goat cheese toppings! This place doubles as an art gallery and we saw some cool and contemporary stuff made by local artisans with baskets and bottles. Frank calls this ShopArt ArtShop. Cutely crazy we say.

Talking about craziness, the houses in the 200 mt or so between 4Rooms and 4Tables are all done up with cool paintings. Not folk but contemporary stuff emanating from Gunehar village life. Frank got artists to come from different places, stay here and paint these buildings. The arty walls, not gaudy, not abstracts but very ethereal make Gunehar look like a piece of heaven. And trying to create heaven on earth through art – we like such craze man!

It has been an invigorating yet calming experience. Oxymoron? Well – no more spoilers. We urge you to come here, stay at 4Rooms, frolic at 4Tables and be a part of the art that transforms lives. And then you would know exactly what we mean and perhaps thank us. Like we thank Frank for introducing us to his wonderful projects in this area.

To watch the videos an more posts about this event check out our Instagram channel.