New Delhi, May 18 (PTI) The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) on Thursday unveiled an architectural model of its new building, which will be India’s “largest cultural centre” when it opens in Delhi in 2026.
Designed by renowned Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye, in collaboration with S Ghosh & Associates, the new KNMA building will be located on the National Highway 8, near the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Spread across over 100,000 square metres, the new centre will host changing exhibitions, permanent displays, and performances encompassing music, dance, and theatre.
The museum currently showcases a collection of over 10,000 modern and contemporary works at two locations in New Delhi and Noida.
“The newly built space of KNMA has been conceived as a world-class cultural centre, a state-of-the-art building and a cultural powerhouse open to all. It will be a place for cultural discovery, a place for confluence and diverse conversations, with a high engagement across a broad range of audiences. At the heart of KNMA is the notion of giving back to society, preserving treasures of the cultural past and nurturing a young generation of creative practitioners and thinkers, while bridging the gap between art and the public,” said Kiran Nadar, founder and chairperson of KNMA, in a statement.
Talking about his association with KNMA, Adjaye said that it provides “an opportunity to embolden the rise of contemporary Indian art”.
“…releasing a new cultural offering for both the people of India, as well as for the wider global arts landscape. Its location in Delhi – one of the oldest cities in the world with a lineage of habitation that stretches to the 6th century BCE – gives new context to its position as a dynamic, living cultural force. As such, its specific location within the city directly influences the new building’s form, rhythm and landscape,” the architect said.
KNMA also unveiled an exhibition, with the architectural model as the centrepiece, featuring works from the museum’s collection by Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009), Zarina (1937-2020) and Nasreen Mohamedi (1937-1990), which spans more than a century.
The exhibition is accompanied by Touch AIR (2023), a film by contemporary filmmaker Amit Dutta.
It explores the theme of ‘Mnemonic’ through image, text, architecture (model) and the moving image. It amplifies through their coexistence the relationship between ‘museum and memory’, suspending the movement of time between the past and the present, while alluding to the theme of India-Pakistan partition.
The model will be on view for the public at KNMA Saket till May 28. PTI MAH RDS RDS
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