Start from scratch at an art exhibition in Lower Parel

The exhibition space is a circular setup with a canvas wall around the edge

You walk into a museum and it's empty. Then you are told that the absence of artworks isn't as important as the presence of an exhibition set-up. It's a giant structure constructed with medium-density fibre board (MDF). As workers are busy giving finishing touches to the MDF and straddling through layers of bubble wrap, we get why this show at the Piramal Museum of Art is called Making Art: Materials and Technology. Everything is an ongoing process and there is no finished product.

The contrast between artistic styles will also be explained through the display of artworks by leading artists like Tyeb Mehta and FN Souza. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

A long experiment
"This is housed within a corporate complex, so our visitors are not museum-versed. These are people who are open to the idea of looking at art. Since our launch in 2015, we have noticed that when people create art themselves, they are a lot more engaged. We thought, why not conceptualise an event around how art itself is made?" art historian Vaishnavi Ramnathan, who has curated the exhibition with Ashvin Rajagopalan, tells us.

The nearly three-month long exhibition will not only feature works by leading artists including FN Souza, Jehangir Sabavala, Reena Kallat and Sunil Gawde among others, but any visitor who walks into the space will be able to create artworks of their own. Materials like paint and ink will be stocked and people can create their own masterpieces on a curved canvas wall.

Artists can work in the centre panel

Educative approach
Works will be split into six categories of artistic media that include single-tone media like charcoal, as well as paint, sculpture, printmaking, photography and digital media. The top panel in the set-up will detail the evolution of each medium.

Ashvin Rajagopalan

But the real learning will take place in the central area that is occupied by a large curved table. The organisers have sent out an open call to artists to come and work out of the area until the exhibition is on, so that visitors can view a live demonstration. "It's like when you cook at home and then watch Masterchef. And you can't help but say, ‘Wow!' That's what we're trying to do here. So, the table is not just round because of the design, but because we want to break the hierarchy in teaching," Rajagopalan explains.

Vaishnavi Ramnathan

All welcome
The museum aims to break through the general sterile experience in galleries and other such spaces. They started out as a collection space and when the collection did get large enough, an art foundation was launched.

"We said, ‘What's the point in keeping all this artwork in our offices where nobody can see it?' But internally we are all telling each other, ‘Oh, this is the best Raza or Husain in our collection!'" he shares, adding that the Raza exhibition they hosted last year had a footfall of around 6,000 to 7,000 people.

Rajagopalan also highlights the people-friendly measures the museum has adopted owing to a natural resistance Indians have to enter art spaces. "There's a general tendency even for security guards, when they spot a kid from the streets trying to enter, to question why the child is here. We've sensitised our guards and said, ‘If you hear the word ‘art' or ‘museum'... you say, ‘Please come in.'"

On February 24 to June 15, 10 am to 10 pm
At Piramal Museum or Art, B wing, Ground Floor, Peninsula Corporate Park, Lower Parel.
Call 30466981

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