At last the Indian Highway exhibition and the catalogue are coming to the MAXXI in Rome, having paused at the Serpentine Gallery in London, the Astrup Fearney Museum in Oslo and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon.
At last the Indian Highway exhibition is coming to the MAXXI in Rome, having paused at the Serpentine Gallery in London, the Astrup Fearney Museum in Oslo and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon. During its long journey, the exhibition, which comprises works by a number of Indian artists portraying the various social and economic aspects of Asian culture, has included new works from time to time and focused on different aspects of life in contemporary India. The idea behind the exhibition is explained in its title: ‘Indian Highway’. So it is a reflection on the potential of the Indian nation and its growth. Starting with the meaning of the highway as a means of connecting migratory flows from city outskirts with actual cities, the idea is to tell the story of the technological development, economic boom and increasing importance as a global power which this civilization has experienced, also from the artistic point of view, since the 1990s. The artists who feature in the catalog, some of whom are already well-known in Europe, include: M. F. Husain, Subodh Gupta, Sheela Gowda, Nikhil Chopra, Nalini Malani and many others. The catalog comes with an interesting guide to the key places and institutions for contemporary art in India, listed city by city, complete with website information.