The curators in this exclusive essay explain the essence and beauty of intriguing India.

Concept of the show ‘My Little India’ at Marella Gallery, Beijing, revolves around India as a dream, as a magic but at the same time mysterious land. We love it and we are attracted by it even if we can’t totally understand it. Sometimes we cannot but stop at a superficial and aesthetic reading. Different cultures mix and reciprocally influence, but at the end the feeling of cultural identity endures and remains strong. For this reason, in all the big cities it is possible to find a China Town, a Little Italy, and a Little India…quarters/countries that bring us to remote universes. People of Indian origin enjoy their ‘Little India’ identity in Western society – likewise Western people live a dream while walking into the streets of these recreated universes.

Every ‘Little India’ offers a feeling of deja vu, a transferred memory of the bustling bazaars of Old Delhi or Ranganethan Street in Madras, the peddlers with their cacophonic calls, the posters of Bollywood, the stray of cow, dog, pig or monkey pottering around, the Hindi music, the tandoori, hordes of people on the street…that become closer.

With this show (February-April 2009), while staring at the works exhibited, we have the same strong impact and impression: we are fascinated, we feel like entering into that world but probably we are only attracted without completely understand it. Everybody has his own different reaction and in this way can enjoy his/her own ‘Little India’.

Curator: Eleonora Battiston points out: “Our idea of ‘My little India’ aims at emphasizing, through a meticulous and restricted choice done by the gallery (this is the reason of ‘MY’ as made by the gallery) of those that we consider the most interesting Indian artists, the fact that Indian art as well as culture have by now entered international contexts from which they receive a strong influence and they influence in turn too.

“Different cultures blend and attract each other. Indian culture, in particular, having already reached a high level of development and emancipation nonetheless remains, for its history and its enchanting traditions, a magical land to be still fully discovered by the rest of the world. Transferring this reality to China, a likewise mysterious and attracting land to the eyes of the West, we want with to create this show an oasis and not a ghetto in which the spectators can immerse and dream.”

The participating artists are Chitra Ganesh, Reena Kallat, Yamini Nayar, TV Santhosh, and Tejal Shah.