- Monday, May 06, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Designed by renowned Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye in collaboration with S. Ghosh & Associates, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) will unveil an architectural model of its new building during the preview of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia this week. It is set to be India’s largest cultural centre when it opens in Delhi, India, in 2026.
An installation showcasing the model is presented as part of the Curator’s Special Projects at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Lesley Lokko and coincides with the breaking ground of the new museum in New Delhi.
It responds to Mnemonic, the theme of Curator’s Special Projects’ section in the Arsenale and includes works from the museum’s collection by major Indian artists Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009), Zarina (1937-2020) and Nasreen Mohamedi (1937-1990). This is accompanied by Touch AIR (2023), a film by contemporary filmmaker Amit
Dutta.
KNMA was established in 2010 by one of India’s most well-known art collectors, Kiran Nadar, as a pioneering private museum exhibiting modern and contemporary works from India and the subcontinent. The museum’s collection of over 10,000 modern and contemporary works draws on the region’s rich cultural history.
The new KNMA will host changing exhibitions, permanent displays, and performances as an international
cultural destination for visual arts, music, dance, and theatre and enable far more of the collection to be seen at any one time.
The museum is currently in two locations in New Delhi and Noida. The new location, covering over 100,000 square metres, will be located on the National Highway (NH8) in Delhi, near the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Through image, text, architecture and film, KNMA’s installation in the Arsenale highlights the relationship between museum and memory, while specifically alluding to the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and the subsequent rupture of a unified sense of place and being.
Belonging to the first generation of post-colonial artists in India, Tyeb Mehta often alluded to the unspoken pain and historical burden of Partition through a recurrent use of the diagonal line. The installation shows three images from the KNMA collection: Untitled (Woman on Rickshaw), 1994; Mahishasura, 1994 and Kali, 1997.
Zarina is an artist known for her geometric abstraction in prints and sculptures as well as text-based work that reflect on home, memory and displacement. Zarina began life in Aligarh, India, and made homes in Japan, Thailand and America. Displacement and a lack of belonging characterised her life and are reflected in the poetic texts within the installation.
Contemporary filmmaker Amit Dutta draws on the personal writing and unique singular vision of Nasreen Mohamedi, an artist who was inspired by architectural forms and practised a frugal form of monochrome abstraction using only lines and working in graphite and ink on paper.
Kiran Nadar, founder and chairperson of KNMA, said, “Our presentation at the Biennale Architettura 2023 communicates the rich creativity of India. The Venice display spans subcontinental history and brings to the fore how the newly built space of KNMA will be a place for cultural discovery and diverse conversations. At the heart of KNMA is the notion of giving back to society, preserving treasures of the cultural past and nurturing a young generation of creative practitioners and thinkers, while bridging the gap between art and the public.”
Architect Sir David Adjaye said, “KNMA provides an opportunity to embolden the rise of contemporary Indian art, releasing a new cultural offering for both the people of India, as well as for the wider global arts landscape. Its location in Delhi–one of the oldest cities in the world with a lineage of habitation that stretches to the 6th century BCE–gives new context to its position as a dynamic, living cultural force. As such, its specific location within the city directly influences the new building’s form, rhythm and landscape.”
Roobina Karode, Director & Chief Curator, KNMA, says “The upcoming complex provides an opportunity for KNMA at the Biennale Architettura to chart novel grounds as we take the museum towards new horizons. With the new architecture in place, we address how the question of memory and history in the post-Partition subcontinent presented the crucial sites for artistic inquiry, unravelling the mechanics and structures of remembrance along the fault lines of time and space.”
The 18th International Architecture Exhibition, titled The Laboratory of the Future, runs from May 20 to November 26, 2023, at the Giardini, Arsenale, and Forte Marghera; curated by Lesley Lokko and organised by La Biennale di Venezia. The presentation of Adjaye Associates with KNMA is part of the Curator’s Special Projects. The pre-opening will take place on 18 and 19 May, and the awards ceremony and inauguration will be held on 20 May 2023.
KNMA acknowledges the Tyeb Mehta Foundation, Imran Chishti from Zarina’s family, the Estate of Nasreen Mohamedi and Deepak Talwar for their co- operation and support.
