Paris-Delhi-Bombay

To anybody who is slightly interested in the culture of others, I would highly recommend a trip to see this exhibition at the Pompidou Centre. It was intriguing to learn that India remains a bit of a mystery in France and one of the goals of the exhibition is to promote dialogue and links between the two cultures. As well a highly comprehensive and varied collection of paintings, sculpture, video and performance, a lot can be learnt about contemporary India through reading the central panels. They give great insight into aspects of India today and can be split into 6 themes- politics, urban development and the environment, religion, home, identity and craft production.

Learn about the craft industry was interesting and especially the diversity of styles between the 600 communities. All crafts are not simple decorative but are instead a profound way of expressing religious devotion and a strong bonding relationship to nature. Another insightful point was the significance and importance of vivid symbols within everyday society, e.g. for the 4 national political parties. Symbols are extremely important as a high percentage of the population are illiterate.

Here are a few works which I found particularly moving or interesting-



Alain Declerq's bullet-marked panels depicting the militarised line between India and Pakistan made me consider the relationship between mark, meaning and emotion.




Sunil Gawde's beautiful yet dangerous red flower garland made of hundreds of painted razor blades. They are a direct reference to the assassinations of Indian political leaders and I particularly like the ambiguity they present.




Sakshi Gupta's elaborately patterned indian carpet is in fact made up of metal car parts. This is similar to the razor blade garlands in that it plays on our idea of beauty and questions our preconceptions.




Sheela Gowda's dyed cow dung installation equally raises the question of beauty and value in different cultures as dung is much prized in India.




Krishnaraj Chonat's wall of toxic IT waste which raises the question about the environmental impacts of globalization upon India holds great visual impact due to its incredible scale.




In a similar way Hema Upadhyay has evoked an equally absorbing atmosphere by reproducing a mini Bombay shanty town on the two walls of a corridor.

Overall I found the exhibits engaging and unusual. I certainly learnt a lot from the exhibition, mainly from a cultural perspective and it has definitely given me an appetite for travel in India!