A binge for the senses

Despite India’s rich heritage, there’s hardly any museum culture to speak of. A major new private museum is committed to change this mindset.

For the longest time, museums have been worse than an afterthought in India — many have the dubious reputation of being greatly effective in deadening your senses rather than bringing them alive.

However, in the middle of a global crisis, an extraordinary transformation is slowly but certainly occurring. Covid-19 has forced museums to explore digital spaces, online exhibitions and virtual reality, among other ways, to stay alive and survive the near-complete loss of audience for most of the year. For government-run museums especially, immersive media till very recently, has been akin to science fiction — in the case of some of these cultural institutions, merely finding a functional website that doesn’t crash on your face feels like an achievement.

In such a scenario, it is perhaps right that private museums show the way and they are indeed doing so. One such institution is the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru, touted to be south India’s first major private art museum. The physical space on Kasturba Road, which is still under construction, is all set to include art galleries, a research and education centre, library and auditoriums, but MAP has, like many museums abroad, already taken the experience online. The digital museum launch festival, ‘Art (is) Life’, premiered yesterday and will go on till 11 December, with each day showcasing a set of curated programmes that focus on one department of the museum’s collection.

Many well-known personalities, including actor Shabana Azmi, lyricist Javed Akhtar, theatre veterans Arundhati Nag and Lillete Dubey, author Devdutt Pattanaik, historian-author William Dalrymple, designer Ritu Kumar and photographer Raghu Rai, among others, are expected to make their presence felt in this one-of-a-kind virtual exploration of art, music, theatre, photography and design.

Changing mindsets

Speaking to DHoS, founder and trustee Abhishek Poddar, said the idea for such a museum struck him when around 15 years ago, museums in the West began approaching him, wanting to borrow artworks from his private collection for exhibitions. “This was exciting, but I felt sad too that so few museums had shows in India. I realised I had the opportunity to change things and hence MAP was born.” Abhishek says, he believes museums could be great as agents of positive change. “There is a real need for private citizens and enterprises to work together to better the cultural landscape instead of waiting for the government to do something.”

Abhishek ruefully agrees that despite India’s rich heritage and history, the culture of museums, so to speak, has not picked up. “The reality is that sometimes, the emptiest spaces in India’s most crowded cities are its museums. I do hope MAP is able to change this mindset. This cannot be done in isolation; we are right now in the middle of an audience development study to understand what our future audience (both in the digital and physical space) are looking for,” he explains.

Integrated storytelling

The founder also hopes to draw in new audiences by “redrawing the lines between art forms, styles and eras and integrating them into novel thematic interpretations.” Museum director Kamini Sawhney says, while earlier, the success of a museum was measured by the richness of its collections, today, what makes a museum ‘alive’ is its ability to inspire, educate and bring the community together. “A museum’s life source is good, solid storytelling that unlocks the rich histories and narratives of the artefacts for the viewer, in a way that surprises and delights him,” she says.

Sawhney goes on to describe how museums in the West have already immersed themselves in digital technologies in a huge way and the pandemic has only given this a further push. “Interactive experiences have a tactile element to them and leave stronger impressions in the minds of visitors. Cutting-edge technological initiatives have to be a significant strategy for any museum that hopes to engage with 21st-century audiences. Museums in the West are doing amazing things in this field and we have been extremely inspired by that,” she says.

A great example, she narrates, is the ArtLens Wall at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This is a 40-ft interactive, multi-touch MicroTile wall that displays all the artworks on view in real time and allows visitors to browse curated views of the collection as well as create their own tours. MAP, she adds, is planning a similar experience at the physical site. The museum will also have a holographic installation that will showcase several 3D works from the collection, allow for virtual curated exhibitions as well as highlight specific artworks.

“We have already scanned around 200 objects in the collection and aim to do about 40 each month. For a museum that is dedicated to the city of Bengaluru, India’s own Silicon Valley, it’s only apt that we adopt all the latest technologies on offer.”

To virtually attend the week-long festival, readers can register at artislife.events.