A CULTURE OF MUSEUMS
The Bihar Museum Biennale launched both physically and virtually announcing an ambitious project that brings culture into focus. Celebrating the first Museum Biennale in India would have called for a bigger gathering at the spanking new wing at the Bihar Museum, created by collaborating with a Japanese architectural firm, however in our new post COVID times, the crowd is virtual and the plaudits are the clicks of the mouse. Over two hundred people attended the talks hosted online and 12 museums from India and across the globe came online to participate in the coming together of museum culture that showcases their key artefacts from their collection to initiate integral discourses regarding the importance of museum culture in generating national awareness and pride.
We experienced a segment of this union through the works and the discussion around some of the nodal artists who were part of generating work for the Bihar Museum collection. A lyrical painting by Arpana Caur remembers King Ashoka, the great, who gave up violence and embraced Buddhism, while another by Paresh Maity recalls Mahatma Gandhi who started the Dandi march in Bihar; G R Iranna celebrates the Buddhist monks, their footwear and the Bodhi tree; Subodh Gupta’s gigantic installation inspired by his recurring iconic domestic utensils has been employed to create a gigantic sacred mandala and rangoli, the Saptamatrika (Seven Mothers) and the lord Buddha painted by Seema Kohli; all celebrate the spirit of peace and ahimsa that surrounds the ideals of what was once Bihar.
Artists and officials got together on March 22, 2021, online and in a controlled safe physical group, to celebrate the inauguration of the first ever Museum Biennale in India.
The hybrid avatar of the Biennale, both physical and digital on the auspicious occasion of Bihar Diwas was in keeping with our Post COVID times. The Biennale was launched under the able guidance of Anjani Kumar Singh, the Nodal Officer of the Bihar Museum and Advisor to the Chief Minister, Deepak Anand, Director, Bihar Museum and Dr Alka Pande project director of the Museum Biennale brought together a taster of key collections from various museums across India and the world.
Upcoming at the Biennale are live and recorded online conversations and talks by eminent speakers that include Neil MacGregor, Hilary Knight, Dr Souraya Noujaim, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Javier Baron among others. There was also a panel featuring artists Arpana Caur, Subodh Gupta, Seema Kohli, Paresh Maity and G R Iranna who have all been commissioned or donated works to the museum. Here they discussed the importance of museum culture, of art as a healing force during the COVID Pandemic and the way forward to make art a part of and essential to everyone’s life.
The inauguration was held at the Bihar Museum in presence of Shri Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, and a few select invited dignitaries. A scholarly publication titled Bihar, India and the World: Celebrating Museum Collections, which comprises detailed information of the twelve primary national participating museums was also launched. It has been compiled for the purpose of the Bihar Museum Biennale, which was also launched at the inaugural event.
Speaking about the initiative Honorable Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri Nitish Kumar said, “Bihar Museum is a cultural hub dedicated to the spirit of enquiry, exploration and creativity of the people of Bihar and the world. The soft power of art and culture has a special space of engagement in our development strategy for Bihar.”
“Bihar Museum has been a project very close to my heart, driven by a personal passion to create a cultural retreat for the people of Bihar to revel in the historic past,” said Kumar Singh.
The Museum encourages visitors in small groups, especially students, to embark on a curated, audio-guided tour that brings out the highlights of the collection. Additionally, visitors will also have the opportunity to explore two curated exhibitions at the museum. The first entails the ‘Making of the Bihar Museum’ by the leading architect Rahul Gore, and the other that will showcase the rich collections of nineteen local state museums of Bihar.
“As an art historian, I can say that the soul of India, the heart of India in many ways is Bihar, whether it’s Pataliputra or Magadha. The Bihar Museum Biennale is an opportunity to bring out a compendium of the Indian museums, and to celebrate their respective collections, each telling its own story,” avers Dr Pande.
Other activities of the Bihar Museum Biennale will include hosting virtual lectures and masterclasses on art and culture of Bihar and India by noted personalities from India and around the world.
Text by Georgina Maddox
Images Courtesy: Bihar Museum and the artists
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