The Art Newspaper

Paris, Delhi, Bombay

25 May 11 – 25 Sep 11

paris. What makes the sprawling, ambitious exhibition “Paris-Delhi-Bombay” at the Pompidou Centre in Paris (25 May-19 September) different from the numerous other surveys of contemporary Indian art that have opened worldwide in the past five years? “It’s a completely unprecedented project.

There have been shows devoted to the contemporary Indian art scene, both in France and abroad. But to really take the measure of the phenomenon of artistic globalisation, something new was needed,” says Alain Seban, the president of the Pompidou Centre.

“That’s why, in 2007, I launched the idea of a major exhibition that would bring the contemporary Indian art scene into dialogue with the contemporary scene in France.

With globalisation, we are seeing not only the proliferation of centres of artistic production, but also the possibility of real inter-cultural dialogue.” More than 45 high-profile artists, 30 of whom are based or born in India with 18 active in France, give their views of the subcontinent, focusing on national identity, politics, religion, urbanism and issues such as the caste system.

Sophie Duplaix and Fabrice Bousteau, the show’s curators, say they want to change entrenched ideas of India: “There is a gap between how the French see India, which remains an outdated view linked to colonialism or the hippy country of the 1970s, and what India is today.” “The show is important because many artists will express how they feel about India, a country we think we know, but our perception is, in fact, based on clichés and prejudices.

I was blown away by India when I discovered it recently. It is also interesting because India, like China or Brazil, is becoming more and more important on the international stage.

I feel that this is something western countries ignore or have difficulties acknowledging,” says Paris-based artist Kader Attia, who is showing a new, three-channel video work, Collages, 2011. Two-thirds of the works have been commissioned for the exhibition, with new pieces on show by artists such as Krishnaraj Chonat, Camille Henrot, Amar Kanwar and Bharti Kher, whose installation Reveal the Secrets that you Seek echoes the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.

Kher’s suite of 28 mirrors are, however, smashed and bedecked with bindis. Meanwhile, Indian art stalwart Jitish Kallat is showing a 2008 piece, Ignitaurus, a sculpture that depicts an animal skeleton morphing into a motorbike.

The show reflects the Pompidou’s lofty aim to “create a global museum,” says Seban. “At the same time, this global vision is an expression of our commitment to French art, because, to think globally, you have to act locally.

The promotion of French art is to my mind indissociable from the global ambition of the project.” This project is matched by more far-reaching plans: last year the Centre Pompidou signed a cultural cooperation agreement with the King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture, a vast arts complex incorporating a museum to be built in the Saudi Arabian city of Dhahran by 2013. n Gareth Harris Categories: Contemporary (1970-present) Thematic

• Monanism, Australia
• British Design 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age, United Kingdom
• 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Germany
• Owen Jones: Islamic Design, Discovery and Vision, United Arab Emirates
• This Will Have Been: Art, Love and Politics in the 1980s, USA

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