Artissima 2021, in collaboration with Emami Art, presented Hub India – Maximum Minimum, a new geographical focus set out to offer an overview of the galleries, institutions and artists active in an area of central importance. The project was curated by Myna Mukherjee, curator, founder and director of Engendered, New Delhi, and Davide Quadrio, founder and director of Arthub.
In a dedicated space inside the fair pavilion, works provided by Indian galleries and institutions offered a panoramic look at the startling visual culture reflecting the countless polarities, contradictions and dualities that comprise India. From the country’s ancient spiritualism to its modern materialism, its colonial past to its growing global centrality, its migratory flows from largely agrarian and rural areas towards rapid urbanization, from dogma to technology, from marginal to mainstream, from historical monuments to contemporary architecture, from normative to radical, Hub India – Maximum Minimum examined the myriad histories and representations in the subcontinent.
On the occasion of Artissima, Hub India expanded in town, exploring the many registers that frame contemporary art from the Indian sub-continent with a tripartite museums show titled Classical Radical. The project was organized in collaboration with Fondazione Torino Musei, that hosted the exhibitions in its museums facilities Palazzo Madama – Museo Civico d’Arte Antica and MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale, and with the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di Torino.
Classical Radical featured contemporary and modern Art from the Indian subcontinent exploring legacy and antiquity in the sociological here and now. How does contemporary art set against India’s variegated religiosities and plural histories carry residues of motifs, styles and ideas through millennia to come to this cultural moment? The three exhibitions were an attempt to look at the classical and traditional legacy through a fresh lens.
The Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti hosted the première of Sama: Symbols and gestures in contemporary art practices. Italy and India vol. 1, a film installation exploring the exciting world of Contemporary Art in both the Indian sub-continent and in Italy, and developing an emotional bridge between the two countries, as an example of the historical cultural and socio-economic extremes of the Euro-Asian continent.
Featuring over 65 artists from 10 of India’s leading contemporary galleries and museum, supported by the Consulate General of India and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and in collaboration with Artissima, Fondazione Torino Musei, Emami Art, Engendered and Arthub, Hub India poised to be the largest and most significant conversation that contemporary art from India has had with the Western world in recent times.
Hub India – Maximum Minimum @Artissima
NATURE MORTE New Delhi – GALLERY ESPACE New Delhi – EMAMI ART Kolkata – AKAR PRAKAR Kolkata, New Delhi – ART ALIVE
New Delhi – LATITUDE 28 New Delhi – SHRINE EMPIRE New Delhi
Hub India – Classical Radical @Palazzo Madama, MAO, Accademia Albertina
KNMA New Delhi – LATITUDE 28 New Delhi – AKAR PRAKAR Kolkata, New Delhi – ART ALIVE New Delhi – EMAMI ART Kolkata – GALLERY ESPACE New Delhi – SHRINE EMPIRE New Delhi – NATURE MORTE New Delhi – SAKSHI ART Mumbai – JHAVERI CONTEMPORARY Mumbai – VADEHRA ART New Delhi – VOLTE Mumbai
