Turin exhibition puts Indian artists through their paces
After a long haul of digital spaces acting as a counterpart of physical exhibitions, the first major exhibition of Indian artists titled Hub India has enthralled the Italian city of Turin by showcasing paintings, textiles, and digital works at three iconic venues.
Seeing a work of art in person may not have seemed vital to many but ever since its absence made this luxury palpable owing to excruciating lockdowns, the audience is now keen to visit the creative public spaces in order to live a little. Incredibly beautiful paintings by Indian artists are all life and soul in Turin.
Ongoing exhibition in Turin, Italy displays the works by 65 Indian artists, borrowed from 10 Indian galleries from November 5 to January 15 in a multi-venue which include paintings, installation, textile, and digital works spread across three iconic venues: the Palazzo Madama, the Museo d’Arte Orientale and Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti.
“Showcasing diverse strands of contemporary Indian art juxtaposes established and emerging practices for new and unfamiliar audiences in the Western world,” Kiran Nadar, founder, and chairperson of the KNMA, said in a statement.
A series of six works showcased at the Museo d’Arte Orientale also included the Sanganeri hand-block print and paper, as per curators the works are representative of multiple Indias and reflect the realities of the urban and rural conundrum, of farmers and women, their stories, ways of living and how they see the country.
The exhibition also narrated the tale of crises, India has dealt in the past, in a striking comment on the farm crisis in rural India, and the protests that have lasted a year, Shambhavi Singh’s installation titled Chiriya Udd (Hindi for Bird, Fly) uses 480 iron sickles to represent a flock of birds in flight.
Apart from paintings and textiles, the exhibition also features an art film titled Sama (Latin for Similar), screened at the Accademia Albertina and headed to Delhi on December 9. The film explores the worlds of contemporary art in the Indian subcontinent and in Italy, offering glimpses into the aesthetics of the two regions by exploring histories, gender, archaeologies, and politics as well as themes of migration, exile, time and memory, and regional specificity in a swiftly changing world.
Image by Hub India
