Exhibitions

Beneath the Turning Sky

Beneath the Turning Sky explores how we find our place in this vast, unfolding universe. How do our choices shape the world, our communities, and all others with whom we share the world? From creation myths to the technologies shaping our future, this exhibition traces our enduring search for meaning, and our attempts to understand the cosmos.

Divided into three sections – Wonder, Exploration & Conquest, and Future, Present – the exhibition features over 60 artworks. Through the meditative abstractions of V. S. Gaitonde, the cosmic gaze of S. H. Raza, the zodiacal visions of Arpita Singh, illustrated manuscript folios from medieval India and much more, the exhibition traverses artistic landscapes to trace how we used to think of our relationship and responsibility to the world and where we stand now.

The second permanent exhibition at MAP, Beneath the Turning Sky, brings together works of art from different time periods, regions, and mediums: paintings, photographs, textiles, sculptures, popular culture, and living traditions. Drawing from the multiple threads within the MAP Collection, it explores how humankind has made sense of the world through story, imagination, and reflection.

Tactile experiences encourage visitors to engage through touch, texture, and material. Designed with accessibility in mind, they open new ways of sensing and feeling art — through surface, shape, and sensation — allowing everyone to experience the exhibition more intimately. An engagement hub invites visitors to participate and engage with the questions in an interactive way. Accompanying the show is a publication that extends these questions through essays, reflections, and dialogue by Dr G. N. Devy, Dr Harini Nagendra, Ira Mukhoty, and Ranjit Hoskote. There is also a children’s publication that serves as an accompaniment to the exhibition, created specifically for young audiences.

With Beneath the Turning Sky, we invite you to reflect on the past, root ourselves in the present, and imagine the futures ahead of us. To remember how small and yet significant we are – participants and stewards, shaped by the land that sustains us.

Phagun, Madan Meena, 2020, Silkscreen and natural pigments on paper, MAC.03112

Beneath the Turning Sky will open on January 17, 2026.