Adjaye Associates with Kiran Nadar Museum of Art

A museum is not only a site for mnemonic contemplation but is also a place where the dual nature of partition (‘partage’ in French) – an action that oscillates between sharing and separation – comes into stark relief. The museum is thus the site of assembly as well as dispersion, classification as well as division – a place where new narratives and temporalities are fashioned. Resonating with this ambivalent nature of partition and learning from the challenges of postcolonial nation-building, KNMA takes inspiration from the works of Tyeb Mehta, Nasreen Mohamedi, and Zarina from the museum’s collection.
In dialogue with these works, an architectural model of the proposed building for KNMA is exhibited. Film brings together all four elements – image, words, architecture, and the line as essential gesture – in a continuous loop. The film becomes the moving line and a visual expression of the past, present, and projected future of the KNMA as an archetypal cultural institution Partition — Partage in a postcolonial setting.

Adjaye Associates
Accra, Ghana; London, UK; New York, USA
Team
Luisa Alves; Joao Barroso; Marissa Glauberman; Sooyeon Lim; Rebecca Petrani; Anyu Chan; S. Ghosh & Associates, New Dehli, India (Local Architect), Sudipto Ghosh, Owais Asif

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art
New Delhi, India
Authorial collaborators
Roobina Karode, Amit Dutta
Team
Deepanjana Klein, Aseem Vadehra, Apurva Kackar, Jijo Jose, Amrita Kapoor, Sandip Luis, Agastaya Thapa, Ashaq Hussain, Shobhit Singh, Singh Modelers Pvt. Ltd. (Model Maker)
Technical collaborators
Moey