Convergence

February 7 - February 27

Convergence
Convergence
A Panorama of Photography's
French Connections in India

An exclusive photography exhibition presenting works of prominent French photographers who have traveled & lived in India from the mid-nineteenth-century to the 1970s.

Event Calendar
Bonjour India logo 2022 Vertical colour

Xavier Zimbardo, Les moineaux du Lake Palace Hôtel, 1982 © Collection Musée Niépce Nicéphore

Marc Riboud, India, 1956 © Fonds Marc Riboud – Musée National des Arts Asiatiques – Guimet

Marc Riboud, Darjeeling, Inde, 1956 © Fonds Marc Riboud – Musée National des Arts Asiatiques – Guimet

Louis-Théophile Marie Rousselet, Tombeau de Brising Deo sur le bord de la Betwa, 1867 © Musée Goupil, Ville de Bordeaux .jpg

Bernard Pierre Wolff, Ellorâ, Inde, 1975

How did French as well as Indian photographers perceive India over two & a half centuries of its history? In this exhibition, different visions of French as well as Indian artists who travelled or lived in India from the mid-19th century to the 1970s will be showcased through the medium of photography. 

Among all these intrepid travellers, writers, journalists, photographers and artists, discover the works of notable French photographers such as Louis Rousselet (who came to India in the mid-nineteenth-century), Marc Riboud (a celebrated French photojournalist who travelled all around Asia in the 50s), and many other works of modern European Masters such as Denis Brihat, Paul Almasy, Michel Séméniako, who took exploratory trips to  India from the 1950s onwards until the 1970s like the French-born American photographer Bernard Pierre Wolff.

Photography cannot change the world, but it can show the world, especially when it changes.

- Marc Riboud, French photographer (1923-2016)

A selection of 19th-century prints and negatives from the most prestigious French institutions (The National Museum for Asiatic Arts – Guimet, Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Musée Nicéphore Niépce Museum, Maison Européenne de la Photographie and Musée Goupil – Ville de Bordeaux) will be showcased for the very first time in India.

Event Calendar

Click on your city to see the details

Time: 4 pm – 8 pm
Venue: Amdavad ni Gufa

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Time: 12 pm to 7 pm (all days)
Venue: Bangalore International Centre (BIC)

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Inauguration: 11 May at 6 pm
Exhibition on view: 12 – 23 May | 9:30 am – 6 pm
Venue: Government Museum Egmore, Chennai

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Opening ceremony: 27 April | 6 pm, open to all

Exhibition on view until 30 June
View timing: 11 am to 6:30 pm

Venue: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, No. 145, DLF South Court Mall, Saket, New Delhi – 110017

How to join?
◉ Free event, open to all
◉ The museum is closed on Monday and on all public holidays.
◉ Covid-19 protocol

Venue Map

Exhibition Opening: 15 November at 6 pm

On view: 15 November – 7 December 2022
Time: 10 am to 6 pm

Venue: Indian Museum, 27, Jawaharlal Nehru Rd, Fire Brigade Head Quarter, New Market Area, Dharmatala, Taltala, Kolkata, West Bengal 700016

How to join?

◉ Click the link to buy tickets: https://indianmuseumkolkata.org/ticket-booking

Exhibition Opening: 22 December at 5:30 pm

On view: 22 December – 12 January
Time: 10 am to 6 pm

Venue: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai

How to join?

◉ Click here: https://csmvs.in/visit-us

On view: 7 February – 27 February
Time: 8 am to 10 pm

Venue: India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi – 110003

How to join?

◉ Free Entry, Open to all

The original photographs will be on view at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi, the reproductions will travel across 5 different cities in India and will be on display in the form of outdoor exhibitions.

‘By researching archives in France as well as India, this project hopes to think about geography, identity and ‘place-making’ as part of a larger cultural exchange wherein we may question belonging, origins and the interdependence between people from across the world’

Rahaab Allana, Curator, Alkazi Foundation for the Arts

About the curator

Rahaab Allana is Curator, Alkazi Foundation for the Arts; Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society (London) and was previously, Honorary Research Associate at University College, London. He is on the board of the Trans-Asia Photography (TAP) Review; Founding Editor of PIX; Founder of the ASAP/art app; and has recently guest-edited Aperture Magazine’s 2021 summer issue on Delhi.

About

Partners

The Alkazi Foundation for the Arts (AFA) is a registered charitable trust dedicated to the preservation of the cultural history of India through extensive research on photography. Housed in the foundation is the private collection of Ebrahim Alkazi, known as the Alkazi Collection of Photography, which comprises works in the form of photographic albums, single prints, paper negatives and glass-plate negatives, painted photographs, and photo postcards. The collection is particularly strong in areas such as archaeology, architectural history, the urban development of colonial cities, military studies, anthropological studies and topography.

Established at the initiative of the avid art collector Kiran Nadar, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) opened its doors to the public in January 2010 as the first private museum of art exhibiting modern and contemporary works from India and the sub-continent. Located in the heart of New Delhi, India’s capital city, KNMA is a non-commercial/not-for-profit organization that intends to exemplify the dynamic relationship between art and culture through its exhibitions, publications, educational and public programs.

Taking place annually in India’s capital, New Delhi, the India Art Fair celebrates modern-day South Asia, combining cutting-edge contemporary visual art with modern masters and vernacular artistic traditions. Positioning art and the artist’s voice at its core, the fair’s programme draws together galleries and institutions, private foundations and arts charities, artists’ collectives and national museums, cultural events and festivals, enabling local and international audiences to engage in innovative ways with the cultural history and development of the region. In addition, the fair is committed to supporting arts education and professional development opportunities and aims to increase audiences for the arts within India. India Art Fair is owned by Angus Montgomery Arts, a division of Angus Montgomery Ltd.

Presenting 5,000 years of Asian art, the Musée Guimet is the largest European museum devoted to Asian art. Its collections are of unparalleled richness and diversity outside of Asia. From the Buddhas of Afghanistan to the Zen monks of Japan, from Indian fabrics to Samurai armor, and from Khmer treasures to Chinese fine art, the Musée Guimet presents all the civilizations of the Asian continent.

The association Les amis de Marc Riboud was created in 2002 in order to expand the public’s awareness of the photographs by Marc Riboud. It relies on its members to encourage exhibitions, books, films and all projects that could help reach this goal.

After Marc Riboud’s archives have been donated to the National Asian arts Museum – Guimet in Paris, the association is hosted there to prepare exhibitions, books and all projects keeping his legacy alive.

Simultaneously a museum, a cultural centre, and a place for research and teaching, the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac was born from the political desire to highlight non-European cultures, in the heart of Paris. Located on the banks of the River Seine, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, the collection housed by the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac is extremely diverse, both in terms of its regions (Africa, Asia, Oceania, Americas) and its contents (photographs, textiles, sculptures, masks, etc.). The museum gathers a collection of 370 000 objects, a considerable collection of graphic art and a collection composed of more than 710 000 ancient and contemporary photographic pieces. The photography collection covers the whole geographic area represented by the museum, as well as the entire historical field of the medium, from 1842 to today.

Located in Chalon-sur-Saône, the ambition of the musée Nicéphore Niépce is to explain the basics of photography from its invention by Niépce up to today’s digital imagery. Its collections bring together almost three million photographs and objects that provide the possibility of a constantly renewed experience visit after visit. The use of interactive terminals and increasingly sophisticated technology provides a deeper understanding of the photographic world.

The museum is planned as an initiation to the broad principles of photography. Professional prints are displayed side by side with amateur efforts. The illustrated press has an important place as an essential support to the worldwide spread of the medium.

Created in 1991 by the Town of Bordeaux, the Goupil Museum is dedicated to the image, its techniques and its uses in the 19th century. It contains the collections of the House of Goupil, a dynasty of art publishers and international gallery owners based in Paris who were active from 1827 to 1920.

The Goupil collections consist of 70,000 photographs, 46,000 stamps, 7,200 matrices (engraved coppers, stone lithographs, typogravure and chromotypogravure blocks, glass negatives) and one thousand books and illustrated reviews.

Since opening in 1996, the MEP remains the primary French institution dedicated to photography in all its forms. Our exhibition programme includes both internationally recognised and emerging photographers and filmmakers, highlighting the diversity of artistic approaches to contemporary lens-based practices. Including a world-class collection of photographic prints and artists’ films from the post-war period and one of the largest specialised research libraries in Europe, the MEP is without equal in Paris.

For French language teachers: organize an outing for your students

Step out of the classroom: A pedagogical kit (in French) to explore Convergence exhibition

Organized with the collaboration of:

Title Image: Bernard Pierre Wolff, Chiites, Festival du Muharram, Lucknow, Inde, 1975 © Collection Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris

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