Tsuktiben Jamir
Established in 2010, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is India’s first modern and contemporary art museum, based in New Delhi. The KNMA is a non-profit and non-commercial organisation that strives to demonstrate the dynamic link between art and culture through its exhibits, educational exhibits, publications, and public programmes.
The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is thrilled to unveil plans for their new Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, at home in Delhi on the 19th of May and later in Venice. This brand-new, state-of-the-art structure, built by award-winning Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye and led by Mrs. Kiran Nadar, an avid art collector as well as the founder of the KNMA, is expected to be the largest and most ambitious cultural venue in South Asia and a paradigm-shifting development for South Asian art.
The founder and Chairperson of KNMA, Kiran Nadar said, “We are very excited to be unveiling the model of the new building. 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.”
Courtesy: KNMA
The building is set to open its doors to the public in 2026, and serve as the largest cultural centre in India. It will be spread across 100,000 sqm near the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. The model for the new building will be on display as part of the Curator’s Special Projects, which will be unveiled in conjunction with the opening of the new museum in New Delhi. Along with the display of the prototype designed by David Adjaye, works by well-known Indian painters like Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009), Zarina (1937-2020), and Nasreen Mohamedi (1937-1990), will also be featured in the show named “Mnemonic.” The event will also be accompanied by a screening of “Touch AIR (2023),” a film by modern director Amit Dutta.
Through text, image, architecture (new building prototype), and moving image, the show reacts to and examines the concept of “Mnemonic.” It emphasises the connection between “museum and memory” through their coexistence, halting the passage of time between the past and the present, and alludes to the concept of Partition, the division of India and Pakistan in 1947 that shattered a cohesive sense of place and being.
Courtesy: KNMA.
KNMA is a pioneering private museum founded in 2010, devoted to displaying modern and contemporary artworks from India and the subcontinent. The museum’s nearly 10,000-piece collection is inspired by the area’s rich cultural heritage.
On KNMA, David Adjaye said, “KNMA 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.”
