Quicksand got invited to take part in the Design Biennale at St.Etienne, France between November 15-28, 2008. The invitation was extended by John Thackara (of Doors of Perception) who is curating an exhibition on design & sustainability – the City Eco Lab – within the same biennale.

John wanted us to put together a sound, image & video installation within City Eco Lab on the variety and vitality of people selling things from or on bicycles.The objective is to sensitize people to the fact that bike-based commerce does not have to be backward looking and is infact a viable, flourishing livelihood for millions in India & other developing economies. Check out our mention on the Doors of Perception blog here.

So we decided to extend our brief a little and do an online installation besides what gets displayed at the exhibition. The installation goes by the url of http://www.velowala.org (“velo” = “cycle” in French & “wala” = “vendor” in Hindi).The website goes live on November 15 and is meant to be a resource that documents and explores opportunities / inspirations for bicycle based commerce in India. Here’s a quick creative for that and a pdf you can download (650KB, 12 pages) that is a compendium of what we found on the streets of Delhi in the first few days of research.

Avinash represents Quicksand at the biennale (is also presenting on November 15 at St.Etienne, France – for those fans who might want to travel to St.Etienne and catch him there ). He would also probably be playing a visual set at a Parisian club to unwind after the conference. Keep checking back on this space for more.