Chalo! india - A NEW ERA OF INDIAN ART

Throughout history, different people have set out for India with different ideas and purposes in mind: Conquerors such as Alexander the Great, explorers, Buddhist such as Xuanzhang, artists such as Kipling and the Beatles, ascetics from all over the world, and in recent years, people headed for business and so on. For them, India was what they wanted to conquer, observe or love or what inspired them. All of them were fascinated by India - it seemed to be the country of imagination and possibility.

National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea intends to show another India through this exhibition. In these days when new possibilities of art are being explored, art of different cultures, especially contemporary Indian art garners international attention.Approximately 110 artworks by 27 artists shown at this exhibition reveal the modern aspects of India, which has been known only as the cradle of ancient civilization. In India where diverse peoples, languagesand spirits coexist on the basis given by nature of 'people living around Indus River', artists are displaying their unconstrained artistic abilities while experiencing the consonances and dissonances created by the harmonious, clashing and disorderly sounds of those diversities. In India, all are moving along together. It is where everything inhabits: the crowded streets where animals, people and cars are in a jumble, articulate and discontinuous intonation patterns of speech in Indian languagesand cars honking, the sounds of animals walking and crying, Gandhi, Nehru, Internet, religion, death, numerous gods, the presence of gods and people in oblivion and in a bustle.

This exhibition was initially designed and organized at the Mori Art Museum with the title of 'Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art.' The newly picked title at Korea, 'Open Your Third Eye'reminds us the bindi, which is a forehead decoration applied between the eyebrows in the form of a droplet. For a long time, a bindi has meant wisdom and auspiciousness. Above all, a bindi is symbolic of the third eye that penetrates wisdom and essence. What are more interesting are the changes that its meaning has undergone. Currently, a bindi functions as the carrier of such spiritual significance, as the symbol of a married woman, as a fashion accessory or as just an exotic souvenir for tourists. It seems that its dynamic symbolism suggests modern India through its history of various meanings and at the same time entails a new perspective on art, that is, a new sense requested from us.

The exhibition guides the viewers to 'India Now' through the five sections of 'Prologue: journeys,' 'Creation and Destruction: Urban Landscape,' 'Reflections: Between Extremes,' 'Fertile Chaos,' and 'Epilogue: Individuality and Collectivity / Memory and Future'. There are revealed in a state of disorder the questions of the individual and society, identity, the city, civilization, memory and so forth. We may be embarrassed by our own unfamiliarity with the coexistence and chaos of diverse voices. Then, India will ask us - Can you endure the tense energy of chaos? And I suggest that it is right at this very moment, when we should keep our 'third eye' wide open.

Namin Kim | Curator National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea