Delhi's Kiran Nadar Museum Of Art Presents 'Very Small Feelings'

If you plan to be in Delhi in the next few months, pay a visit to the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in Saket. The museum, a pioneering private museum of Modern and Contemporary art in South Asia, is hosting Very Small Feelings (VSF), the fourth exhibition in the multi-part, long-term series 'Young Artists of Our Times'. Presented in conjunction with Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka, the collection includes 42 projects ranging from new commissions to historical works, performances, books, personal and institutional archives, artists' creative prompts turned into installations, and many kinds of landscapes. Through these, the exhibition seeks to encounter the eternal inner child in us and bind us strongly to it.

About the Exhibition

Conceived as a 'spread' where stories, rituals, characters, memories, and actions provide a space for intergenerational conversations and entanglements, VSF sees youth as a conceptual category, not defined by age, but as a place of possibility&ndashstaged through known and forgotten tales, popular characters, cartoons, and narratives deeply embedded in one's consciousness.

"Very Small Feelings is nurtured by a dynamic working and collaborative effort between curators Akansha Rastogi and Diana Campbell, with the coming together of two institutions in South Asia, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and Samdani Art Foundation. For viewers, the exhibition tends to become a space for action, emotion, exploration, and reflection, with works of diverse scale, material, and content," said Roobina Karode, Director and Chief Curator of KNMA.

"In many ways, this exhibition is so much about the power of the oral and storytelling, its joys and everydayness, the performativity of telling and retelling stories we know and how they change in each iteration, when the whole being is involved, with emotions, feelings, and intellect," said Akansha Rastogi, Senior Curator, Programming and Exhibitions, KNMA.

Featured Works

The works featured across a range of media include a new commission work by Mumbai-based architect duo Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty, sculptural installation by Delhi-based artist Murari Jha, Guandeoupe artist Kelly Sinnapah Mary, a large installation by Indonesian artist Aditya Novali in collaboration with his sister Ade Dianita, new site-specific murals by Finnish artist Jani Ruscica, a participatory performance by Bangladeshi artist Yasmin Jahan Nupur which is also supported by Bagri Foundation, and Berlin-based artist Simon Fujiwara's new set of works on his character of 'Who the Baer', among other works. Other prominent international artists and projects include Vietnamese artist Thao Nguyan Phan's installation "Tropical Siesta," and Dutch artist Afra Eisma's work is among the largest tapestries and textile-based works ever exhibited by KNMA. The historical part of the exhibition highlights new research on forgotten artists like Leela Mukherjee and Devi Prasad, bringing to focus their life as artist-educators, and on artists Chittaprosad and Benodebehari Mukherjee.

Shillong-based artist Lapdiang Syiem's video work connects India and Bangladesh via the folklore of the Shillong's Khasi hill tribes, and a presentation by the Anga Art Collective focuses on the village elders in western Assam close to the Bangladesh border, who were forced to abandon their homes as their village drowned in Brahmaputra due to erosion. Many of these works highlight the closeness of Bangladesh and East and Northeast India through language, shared borders, stories, and climate challenges.

Renowned author Amitav Ghosh's Jungle Nama, an adaptation of a legend from the Sundarbans that speaks to nature, human boundaries, and balance, will come to life through its audio-visual presentation and collaboration with Salman Toor and Ali Sethi. To further animate the presentation, Amitav Ghosh will also speak at the KNMA on 14 July about the climate emergencies addressed in folklore and legends and the people's relationship with their environments.

Other highlights include a newly commissioned project by artist Nidhi Khurana, who will be an artist-in-residence inside the exhibition and respond to modernist master Devi Prasad's writing and curriculum-making as an artist-educator.

VSF is speckled with artworks made by children, some with annotations indicating how to read and approach these drawings, and the category of child-art, by artist-educator Devi Prasad. Another children's related project showcase is of Artreach-KNMA Teaching Fellowship, which has been ongoing since 2016 with different shelter homes in Delhi NCR.

Other Details

The exhibition is curated by Akansha Rastogi (Senior Curator, KNMA) and Diana Campbell (Chief Curator, Dhaka Art Summit) with Ruxmini Choudhury (Assistant Curator, Samdani Art Foundation), Avik Debdas and Swati Kumari (Curatorial and Research Associates, KNMA). Co-produced by Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and Samdani Art Foundation (SAF), the exhibition's first iteration was organised at the Dhaka Art Summit (3 to 11 February 2023). It is the first collaboration of this scale and nature between two large arts institutions in India and Bangladesh, aiming to address and engage the subcontinent's younger voices, bring them into the fold, and form new forms of institutional collaboration.

Find out more here.

The Information

Venue KNMA, Saket

Dates On till 23 September 2023

Timing 1030 am-630 pm

The museum is closed on Monday and all public holidays. Admission to exhibitions is free.

Cover photo credit&nbspJoydeb Roaja/Go back to the roots

RELATED ASI Announces Restoration Plans For Khirki Mosque In Delhi

ALSO READ Cultural Travel Museums In Kerala