Indian Highway

Curators: Gunnar B. Kvaran, Director, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, Serpentine Gallery and Co-Director Exhibitions and Programmes, Serpentine Gallery and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director Exhibitions and Programmes and Director, International Projects, Serpentine Gallery, in association with Hanne Beate Ueland and Grete Årbu, Curators, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art.

Included artists: Ayisha Abraham, Ravi Agarwal, Nikhil Chopra, Dawood/Deora, Debkamal Ganguly, Sheela Gowda, Sakshi Gupta, Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta, N.S. Harsha, Abhishek Hazra, M.F. Husain, Anant Joshi, Ruchir Joshi, Jitish Kallat, Amar Kanwar, Bharti Kher, Riyas Komu, Bose Krishnamachari, Nalini Malani, Kavita Pai/Hansa Thapliyal, Pors & Rao, Prajakta Potnis, M.R. Rajan, Sumedh Rajendran, Raqs Media Collective, Priya Sen, Tejal Shah, Surabhi Sharma (with Siddharth Gautam Singh), Sudarshan Shetty, Dayanita Singh, Kiran Subbaiah, Ashok Sukumaran & Shaina Anand, Hema Upadhyay, Avinash Veeraraghavan, Vipin Vijay and Vivek Vilasini.

Following the remarkable and rapid economic, social and cultural developments in India in recent years, Indian Highway is a timely presentation of the pioneering work being made in India today, embracing art, architecture, film, literature and dance. The culmination of extensive research over a lengthy period, Indian Highway is a snapshot of a vibrant generation of artists working across a range of media, from painting, photography and sculpture to installation and Internet-based art and video. It features those who have already made an impact on international art juxtaposed with emerging practitioners.

Some artworks in the exhibition have been selected for their connection to the theme of Indian Highway, reflecting the importance of the road in migration and movement and the link between rural and urban communities. Other works make reference to technology and the ‘information superhighway’, which has been central to India’s economic boom. A common thread throughout is the way in which these artists demonstrate an active political and social engagement, examining complex issues in an Indian society undergoing transition, which include environmentalism, religious sectarianism, globalisation, gender, sexuality and class.

Indian Highway pioneers a radical model of curating, in which curators will be invited to develop a ‘show within a show’ inside the exhibition. At the Serpentine, Delhi-based multi-media artists Raqs Media Collective have invited documentary film-makers to participate. This curatorial practice will be developed on the exhibition’s tour, starting at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo, with a section curated by the artist Bose Krishnamachari. At each subsequent international venue, over the next four years, a different Indian artist or group will invite their contemporaries to exhibit, bringing views of Indian art from the inside and allowing the exhibition to grow and develop in new and unexpected ways.

Programme for Indian Highway

Thursday 16.04, 6pm
Gunnar B. Kvaran
Indian Highway
An exhibition in progress
Gunnar B. Kvaran is Director for Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art and one of the curators for Indian Highway. He will present the curatorial concept of the exhibition. In Norwegian.

Saturday 18.04, 12.30pm (for children 5-7, 2 pm for children 8-10 years old)
Barnekunstklubben Rasmus: Indisk motorvei
Påmelding til rasmusklubben@operamail.com See separate programme.

Saturday 25.04, 2pm
Nikolaus Hirsch
Cybermohalla
Reflections on Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism in India
Nikolaus Hirsch is an award winning architect, curator and writer who is currently guest professor in Art and Architecture at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. His work include several exhibition structures, amongst the outdoor structure for Indian Highway in London. The talk will present reflections on contemporary architecture and urbanisme in India with the project Cybermohalla Hub in New Delhi as the starting point.

Sunday 26.04, 2pm
Richa Chandra and dancegroup from Damini House of Culture
Richa Chandra, founder of Damini House of Culture, will give a short introduction to classical Indian dance, followed by a sparkling performance by Norway’s leading performers of Indian dance.

Saturday 09.05, 2 pm
Ranjit Hoskote
Indian contemporary art in an international context
Ranjit Hoskote is a curator, writer and art critic with profound knowledge of the new generation of Indian artists.

Thursday 14.05, 6pm
Torunn Liven
On the negotiation between aesthetics and the ethical-political in Amar Kanwar’s art
Torunn Liven is a masters student at CULCOM, University of Oslo, with the art historical thesis: ’Image vs text: A discussion on the lyrical documentarism in Amar Kanwar’s A Season Outside (1998) and The Lightning Testimonies (2007)’. She is also a writer and a theatre critic, and has amongst other places studied at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In Norwegian.

Thursday 28.05, 6pm
Hanne Beate Ueland
Guided tour of Indian Highway
Hanne Beate Ueland is associate curator for Indian Highway. In Norwegian.

Saturday 23.05, 12.30pm (for children 5-7, 2 pm for children 8-10 years old)
Barnekunstklubben Rasmus: Skummelt eller morsomt?
Påmelding til rasmusklubben@operamail.com See separate programme.

Saturday 13.06 12.30pm (for children 5-7, 2 pm for children 8-10 years old)
Barnekunstklubben Rasmus: Indiske filmer
Påmelding til rasmusklubben@operamail.com See separate programme.

Saturday 13.06 1pm
Damini House of Culture: Indian dance by children for children
The children’s group from Damini House of Culture performs Indian dance for children in the museum.

Thursday 20.08, 6pm
Grete Årbu
Guided tour of Indian Highway
Grete Årbu is associate curator for Indian Highway. In Norwegian.