Tokyo-based Mori Museum’s anniversary exhibit comprised over 100 works by some of India’s highly talented artists.  The focus on India has tended to centre on its history, its cultural heritage and its multi-faith society and, more recently, with Bollywood. These are no longer sufficient to wholly explain the complexities and dynamism of the present-day India –the dreams and hopes of its people, the contradictions in its society, its energy and passion.

Projected as a significant survey of new Indian art, ‘Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art’ (December 2008- February 2009) was a thought-provoking showcase of state-of-the-art, interactive new media work.

One of the largest and most ambitious exhibits of Indian contemporary art ever staged in Japan, it was a huge success. An introductory essay mentioned: “The younger generation of artists creates a diverse and dynamic range of contemporary art to cope with this (hype and) demand. We invite you to join the discovery of an explosion of vitality and creativity in Indian contemporary art, encompassing a broad range of media like painting, sculpture, installation and photography.”

Reena Saini Kallat, Bharti Kher, Hema Upadhyay, Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta, Atul Dodiya, Tushar Joag, Anant Joshi, Ranbir Kaleka, Jitish Kallat, N. S. Harsha, Pushpamala N., Jagannath Panda, Prabhavathi Meppayil, Raqs Media Collective, A. Balasubramaniam, Krishnaraj Chonat, Nikhil Chopra, Sarnath Banerjee, Gigi Scaria, Justin Ponmany, Ashim Purkayastha, Kiran Subbaiah, Vivan Sundaram, Nataraj Sharma, Thukral & Tagra and Gulammohammed Sheikh were among the participating artists.

The exhibition aimed to bridge the gap by presenting works of contemporary artists to express their perception of and reaction to the changing realities of the land.

Visit the ‘Chalo! India’ show