The Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) is a curious case examine of India’s altering relationship with artwork. Industrialist Abhishek Poddar’s philanthropic initiative to make his formidable assortment of artwork, images and textiles out there to the public took off as a digital platform in 2016. Since then, the museum has launched a sequence of academic ventures in collaboration with notable worldwide museums like The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, in addition to tech giants like Accenture and Microsoft.
Now, in a reversal of the typical offline-to-digital transition that the majority museums are compelled to make, MAP will take bodily kind in the coronary heart of Bengaluru at a shocking five-storey museum, set to open to the public in mid February 2023. It will embody 4 giant galleries, an in depth library, a multimedia gallery, a 130-seat auditorium, a know-how centre, a sculpture courtyard, a analysis and conservation laboratory, a studying centre, a present retailer, a café, and a fine-dining restaurant on the terrace. “MAP’s mission is to take art into the heart of the community,” says museum director Kamini Sawhney. “We’re looking at democratising art, and changing the whole museum-going experience for the country.”
Kamini Sawhney, director, Museum of Art and Photography.
| Photo Credit:
Prarthana Shetty
AI and useful holograms
The digital life of MAP will proceed to remain alive and properly even in the bodily museum area: for one, an AI-powered hologram of MF Husain, created by MAP Labs in collaboration with Accenture, will greet guests and reply all method of questions from, “Why did you like horses?” to “Why did you go barefoot?”
Moreover, a multimedia gallery is fitted with a number of digital screens that enable audiences to drag up any of the practically 60,000 digitised artworks that MAP is custodian to. This means the entirety of MAP’s assortment stays accessible, even when it is not bodily on show. “I see the virtual and the physical as two parts of a whole,” admits Sawhney, “I don’t see MAP as being just a physical space… [or] just being a digital platform; we are learning how to combine the two. The idea is to enhance the experience of your audience.”
The 44,000 sq.ft. Museum of Art and Photography.
Bengaluru-based structure agency Mathew & Ghosh, that designed the museum constructing, translated the “outward focus” of MAP’s intention right into a 44,000 sq.ft. construction that seems to develop outwards — with the footprint increasing on the increased ranges. Soumitro Ghosh made a selected reference to colonial-era water containers. “It is a metaphor for how art tends to break boundaries and put pressure on society to question itself and its norms,” he says. “That was kind of translated into this idea of the building itself having an outward pressure.”
Architect Soumitro Ghosh.
| Photo Credit:
Pallon Daruwala
The architects have additionally labored with Diversity and Equal Opportunity Centre to construct accessibility into the cloth of the museum. “Besides ramps, we also looked at the positioning of door handles, wheelchair friendly ticket counters, and quiet rooms for people who get over-simulated and need some time to calm down,” explains Sawhney.
Growing a cultural hub
The MAP assortment is loosely divided into six classes: Pre-modern; Modern and Contemporary; Textiles, Craft and Design; Living Traditions (which is sometimes understood to incorporate folks and tribal artwork); Photography; and Popular Culture. “Popular culture is Bollywood posters, calendar art, advertisements, and the like,” explains Sawhney. “All these things, which represent mass culture, are important hooks to draw people in. When they enter the museum, they feel that this is a space that reflects part of their life.”
A photograph from modernist printmaker, painter and photographer Jyoti Bhatt’s exhibition.
To showcase the breadth of their assortment, MAP will open with three inaugural showcases: they are going to emphasise their holding of images via a uncommon exhibition of works by modernist printmaker, painter and photographer Jyoti Bhatt that can draw from 1,000 prints and 60,000 negatives; Karnataka-based artist L.N. Tallur, who works between India and South Korea, will reply to MAP’s assortment of sacred objects like kinnaras (celestial musicians which are half human, half hen) and deepalakshmis (a illustration of goddess Lakshmi holding a lamp) via an Artificial Intelligence-powered mission Chirag-e-AI that can create intersections between AI and ritualistic perception methods; and lastly, Visible/Invisible, curated by Sawhney, will discover the visible illustration of girls in artwork (from the 10th century to the current) via a three-year exhibition of 130 works from MAP’s everlasting assortment.
An Exhibit from Karnataka-based artist L.N. Tallur’s Chirag-e-AI.
The exhibitions shall be accompanied by academic initiatives via the 12 months, together with a convention of girls’s points which is slated for March 2023. “We want MAP to be a cultural hub, a space for ideas and conversations,” says Sawhney. “Our collection becomes the starting point, but we want a more interactive relationship with our audiences — we don’t want to be the dominant voice.”
An exhibit from Visible/Invisible.
Ghosh, for his half, imagines that MAP’s many initiatives will shortly develop past the trappings of its bodily area and go from being a single location right into a community of interconnected areas in the city panorama. “I don’t see this as an end in itself; it’s just a beginning,” he admits. “We have tried to make all provisions — whether it is for power access or data security — but I am sure the curators and the artists are going to challenge those boundaries every time they set up a new show. It’s going to be continuously evolving. That’s part of the game.”
The freelance author and playwright is primarily based in Mumbai.