There is a tendency to view the future as an inevitable force, as if it simply "happens" to us, rather than something we shape through our collective actions. But who we are—whether you, me, the neighbour, a friend across the ocean, or the land we inhabit—are all vessels of shared knowledge and memory, repositories of ways of thinking and being. This understanding threads through ‘Ancestral Futures’, a thought-provoking exhibition at Gallery Espace celebrating the gallery’s 35-year legacy.
"Art possesses a freedom that even universities cannot replicate. It follows its own unique logic. It has this freedom to speculate, to push boundaries, and to dream truths into poetics," notes curator Damien Christinger. His curatorial vision for the show, deeply rooted in the concept of ancestral futures, brings together Indian and international artists—including Arunkumar HG, Ashish Sahoo, Ashok Ahuja, Harendra Kushwaha, Ishita Chakraborty, Nandini Bagla Chirimar, Maze Collective, Michael Guenzberger, Ravi Agarwal, Sharad Sonkusale, Sonia Mehra Chawla, Ujjal Dey, and Ursula Biemann—who explore the interplay between heritage and the unfolding of time.
"How do we celebrate the history of an art gallery that helped to shape the Indian art scene from 35 years ago until today?" Christinger asks. "Or, to ask this more generally: How do we bring our pasts into futures? Shared stories, individual experiences, cultural expressions, ideas of progress promised, fulfilled, or broken, dreams of achievements and growth. We can’t just dwell on the past, but the sole orientation towards the future might also blind us to what exists around us in the present."
In ‘Ancestral Futures’, Christinger envisions possibilities of bringing these contradictions together.
Coming Back Full Circle
Founded by Renu Modi in 1989 with an inaugural show by the iconic M.F. Husain - who also designed the gallery's logo—Gallery Espace has been pivotal in nurturing contemporary Indian art.
Husain's influence on Modi's path as a gallerist is woven into the gallery’s DNA. Christinger, who was invited to curate this milestone show, recalls seeing the original poster for that inaugural exhibition, sparking his connection with the gallery’s origin story and its evolution. Maze Collective Studio, a Delhi-based photography studio cofounded by Ashish Sahoo, reinterprets the gallery’s first exhibition poster, deconstructing, collaging, and layering it with personal responses.
Meanwhile, artists like Michael Guenzberger and Ravi Agarwal explore environmental themes through their collaborative work in Rajasthan created amidst the intense heat. Theirs is a tactile conversation with nature, where the impact of heat on their materials brings new immediacy to the Anthropocene—a term that encapsulates the impact of human activity on the planet. “Most environmentalists talk about heat,” explains Guenzberger, “but we wanted to talk with the heat, feeling its force as it dictated our creative process.”
Futures of Plurality
Ishita Chakraborty’s work, rooted in her long-term research in the Sundarbans, intricately combines song, memory, and fabric, capturing the voices of fisherwomen whose stories speak to resilience and feminine strength.
"The song transports something into the future from the past," says Christinger, explaining how Chakraborty's work not only documents but also propels forward these Indigenous narratives. By juxtaposing her research in the Sundarbans with work with the Inga people in the Amazon by Ursula Biemann, Christinger invites audiences to consider the universality of indigenous narratives and their endurance amidst ecological crises, highlighting connections that transcend borders.
The separate yet thematically connected works of Ursula Biemann and Sharad Sonkusale, converge in themes of self-realisation through nature. By juxtaposing Biemann’s Swiss video artistry with Sonkusale’s Marathi poetry, the exhibition bridges cultural and epistemological divides, demonstrating how ancestral knowledge can serve as a grounding force. “These artists are not simply nostalgic for the past,” says Christinger.
“They are exploring futures rooted in plurality, where diverse knowledge systems converge to offer new pathways. Ancestral futures can only be a future of plurality,” he added. This plurality challenges the linear, Western conception of time, suggesting a more cyclical, interconnected approach that respects diverse ways of knowing and categorising.
Ujjal Dey’s work revives the dyeing techniques of Adivasi communities near Santiniketan, bringing ancient knowledge into contemporary artistic practice. Dey, currently pursuing a PhD on these techniques, employs traditional methods to create modern artworks.
Reflecting on this, Christinger explains, “When we speak about modernity, we often mean industrialisation. In India, this also includes a colonial history of extraction. Jute, for example, was a major industry, and its cultivation and classification go back to colonial projects of categorisation. Sonia Mehra Chawla’s work with botanical archives in England and India further explores this history, juxtaposing two classification systems—one colonial and one indigenous. European botanical taxonomy, dating back to Carl Linnaeus, was part of a colonial impulse to categorise the world through its own logic, mapping and classifying based on a European worldview.”
This approach, which still underpins much of modern science, as Christinger notes, "has proven to be quite fatal in the Anthropocene." He further adds, "It is time for new inputs in the system. Alternative inputs in these systems must come from other places, like India or the Amazon, where different approaches and ways of thinking might change, moving away from paths of extraction and destruction.”
35 Years of Gallery Espace
Reflecting on ‘Ancestral Futures’, Modi adds, “This exhibition uniquely examines the gallery’s past in light of the contemporary art landscape.” She paints the transformation of the art ecosystem in recent years with optimism. “Galleries have always played a pivotal role in the Indian art system, contributing significantly to the art landscape,” she says.
Gallery Espace has witnessed a “180-degree change” in the art world—from a time with “no market, no structure” to today’s active art scene, with private museums, biennales, and a thriving market that shapes new opportunities. The gallery itself has become a space for education and discovery, welcoming a diverse range of visitors. “For us, being situated in a public space brings many advantages; we have frequent walk-ins, and it’s become an educational space. Some visitors tell us, ‘We have grown up here,’ and that’s a big part of the role Espace has played in the art scene. I’m happy to experience this and contribute to it.”
Curator Damien Christinger’s approach, she notes, offers an external perspective on Gallery Espace’s history and the evolution of contemporary Indian art over 35 years. “While rooted in an Indian aesthetic, the gallery has always taken pride in staying ahead of the times.”
From pioneering India’s first sustained video art programme by a gallery to championing innovative works like Harendra Kushwaha’s paper-based mobiles and Arunkumar HG’s lenticular prints addressing environmental degradation, Gallery Espace continues to break new ground. ‘Ancestral Futures’ underscores Gallery Espace’s role as both a facilitator of artistic heritage and a dynamic platform for new expressions.
Ancestral Futures is on view at Gallery Espace, New Friends Colony, until December 15