Heritage and history have always been a rich repository from which artists have sought inspiration in the past. Recently, we have witnessed a growing interest among creators around the world to critically engage with the cultural heritage that surrounds them. These historical sites don’t simply serve as backdrops for cultural performances or exhibitions anymore. Rather, artists are engaging with the material heritage, architecture and landscape to create new works that construct bridges between the past and present.
Several renowned artists are participating in such interventionist practices with museum collections and heritage sites. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya recently hosted an exhibition, titled Rhizome: Tracing Ecocultural Identities, curated by Jesal Thacker, where artists were invited to intervene and create new works that dialogued with tangible heritage. They were asked to respond to the museum’s collection of objects, paintings and sculptures with a focus on ecology and the rhizomatic structures that exist in the eco-cultural world. One of the participants, Meghna Singh Patpatia’s large paper scroll explores the relationship between culture and ecology by creating an immersive experience through Persian symbolism, as a response to the Natural History Gallery, where it was housed. Whereas, GR Iranna’s …and the Branch Rested… is placed under an old palm tree in the museum’s garden, exploring the co-existence of man-made and natural environments.
Besides these artist-led interventions at museums, the recently established Partition Museum in New Delhi explores the lived experiences of Partition and its aftermath. They have invited artists to form contemporary responses to the mass exodus, creating links for the present and future generations to know and understand the past. Heritage organisations are moving from static modes of reception to active modalities by bringing in sensory and emotional dimensions that transform these sites into living cultural spaces.
More and more galleries and museums are exploring such collaborations between contemporary art and heritage. On my recent visit to Italy, I saw an exhibition exploring the relationship between Buddhism and technology, involving sculptures, site-specific projects, musical performances and video art.
As contemporary art enters heritage spaces, newer audiences are attracted to engage with these sites. These practices support community engagement and heritage conservation by building programmes around site-specific artworks. They help us view the world around us in different ways, focusing on ecology, historical contexts and sustainability.
The contemporary mind is gradually but surely entering the sphere of heritage to activate and enliven our dialogues with the past.
Sunaina Anand
Founder and Director, Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi
sunaina@artalivegallery.com