Financial Times
Bengaluru’s new Museum of Art and Photography opens with an exhilarating show
“It is rare for a museum director to cite economic development data while discussing their inaugural exhibition. But that is how Kamini Sawhney, head of the new Museum of Art and Photography in Bengaluru, decided on Visible/Invisible: Representation of Women in Art Through the MAP Collection. “In 2021, women dropped to 20 per cent of the workforce in India. That is lower than Bangladesh. There was a report from Statista that said that India was the most dangerous country for women across a range of parameters,” Sawhney says. “I felt this is a narrative we need to pick up.”
The resulting exhibition, curated by Sawhney, combines art, sculpture, quilts, movie posters and photography to tackle a monumental paradox in a land of paradoxes. Goddesses are ubiquitous and worshipped widely in the country’s mythology; Indira Gandhi was one of the world’s first women prime ministers in 1966, and many leading politicians are women. Yet inside and outside the home, most women have a de facto second-class status. MAP’s debut exhibition tackles this weighty subject in both exhilarating and depressing fashion.”
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Anoushka Mirchandani
