Contemporary Snapshot
The exhibition “Indian Highway” promotes a snapshot of a vibrant generation of Indian artists working across a range of media, from painting, photography and sculpture to installation, Internet-based art and video. This contemporary art project is a collaboration between Serpentine Gallery in London and Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo, and was first exhibited in London. Now it has started its grand international tour, with the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art as the first stop.
Moving References
The exhibition features artists who have already made an impact on the international art world alongside emerging practitioners. Each manifestation of «Indian Highway» will include site-specific elements, but the artists share common points of reference; the sense of movement, referring to issues of migration, links between rural and urban India, as well as the «information super-highway» at the heart of the nation’s economic boom. The work also examines complex questions in contemporary Indian society, addressing such issues as environmentalism, sectarianism, globalisation, gender, post-colonialism, sexuality and class.
Global Shifts
«Indian Highway» is the second chapter in the contemporary art project of three major cultural regions, China, India and the Middle East, reflecting a shift from Western to emerging global economies. This exhibition will be introduced by the curators Gunnar B. Kvaran, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Julia Peyton-Jones, and will not only be interesting for classical art-lovers, but also fruitful for everybody who has followed the development of the “new” India.
Business Possibilities
On the same day as the «Indian Highway» opens in Oslo, the India Business and Culture Day takes place in Drammen. Innovation Norway and The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) invites Norwegian companies for a seminar about the market opportunities in India. Among the key speakers are Ambassador Mr. Banbit Roy from the Indian Embassy in Oslo, Philip Lothe, former Asia correspondent for the Norwegian Broadcasting Company and Ms Ambika Sharma, Assistant Secretary General in Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
The Art of Launching
The Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development, Mr. Erik Solheim is one of the key speakers in Drammen 2nd of April. He will elaborate on the Norwegian government’s new India strategy and expectations to Norwegian business. This strategic document is being launched from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in May, and the exhibition «Indian Highway» at Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is one of the possible locations for the launching of this new and important strategic document.
«Indian Highway» is exhibited between 2nd April and 23rd August at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo.
Included artists: Ayisha Abraham, Ravi Agarwal, Nikhil Chopra, Dawood/Deora, Debkamal Ganguly, Sakshi Gupta, Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta, Sheela Gowda, N.S. Harsha, Abhishek Hazra, M.F. Husain, Jitish Kallat, Anant Joshi, Ruchir Joshi, Amar Kanwar, Bharti Kher, Riyas Komu, Bose Krishnamachari, Nalini Malani, Pors & Rao, Prajakta Potnis, Raqs Media Collective, M.R. Rajan, Sumedh Rajendran, Priya Sen, Surabhi Sharma (with Siddharth Gautam Singh), Sudarshan Shetty, Ashok Sukumaran & Shaina Anand, Tejal Shah, Dayanita Singh, Kiran Subbaiah, Kavita Pai/Hansa Thapliyal, Hema Upadhyay, Avinash Veeraraghavan, Vipin Vijay and Vivek Vilasini.