Cirva and Villa Swagatam announce an exceptional residency of Indian artist Manish Pushkale.
22 September 2025. The Centre international de recherche sur le verre et les arts plastiques (Cirva) and Villa Swagatam announce an exceptional Carte Blanche entrusted to Indian artist Manish Pushkale, a leading figure in contemporary Indian abstraction, recently invited by the Musée Guimet in Paris for a major installation on memory and intangible heritage.
This project was born out of a strong desire to promote a “dialogue of making” between France and India, bringing together the excellence of a pioneering research centre like Cirva with the creative energy of the Indian contemporary scene.
Conceived as a long term project (over two years), this residency invites one of the foremost representatives of contemporary abstraction in India to engage for the first time with a material as fascinating as it is demanding: glass. Between old and new, fragile and resistant, technical and poetic, this medium becomes the ground for radical experimentation, true to the spirit of research and openness that drives both Cirva and Villa Swagatam.
India, land of savoir-faire, also has a long tradition of glass craftsmanship rooted in Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh. For generations, artisans there have worked colored glass to create jewelry and bangles. It was there that Jean-Michel Othoniel – an iconic former resident of Cirva – travelled in 2010 to develop his famous glass brick, mouth-blown and directly inspired by the city’s urban environment. From the “firozi blue,” that signature shade of Othoniel, a “color of our Indo-European culture,” to the arrival of Manish Pushkale in Marseille, the first Indian artist to be welcomed at Cirva, the continuity is evident.
Manish Pushkale reflects: “As a multidisciplinary artist, I find it very interesting to challenge myself with this ancient medium which is still a new and unexplored medium to me. During my residency, I wish to understand and explore the possibilities of the ignition between the old and new aspects of working with glass.”
This residency, which consists of ten weeks of the artist’s immersion in Marseilles between 2026 and 2027, is conceived as a process of free creation, without a predetermined outcome, but with the intention of opening up new pathways for contemporary abstraction. By offering Manish Pushkale this Carte Blanche, Cirva and Villa Swagatam reaffirm their commitment to fostering intercultural dialogue and the most daring artistic explorations, in the tradition of the great cultural bridge-builders who have shaped the history of exchanges between France and India.
Le Centre international de recherche sur le verre et les arts plastiques (Cirva)
The International Glass and Visual Arts Research Centre (Cirva) is an art centre that places creation at the heart of its project. Occupying a unique position on the world stage since 1983, it invites artists and designers to work with a precise material, glass, in an atmosphere of total freedom. At the Cirva’s studio, they are met by a team of very high-level glass technicians with whom a dialogue begins. This exchange unfolds over the course of time, through repeated visits. It is instrumental in allowing the artists to undertake bold experiments during which unlimited avenues of thought encounter a material with a complex and unpredictable reputation. The Cirva is a non-profit association, recognized for general interest, which has been supported since its creation by the Ministry of Culture / regional directorate of cultural affairs Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, by the City of Marseille, by the Sud Paca regional council and the Bouches-du-Rhône departmental council.