Professor Rajeev Lochan, Director, National Gallery of Modern An s "In recent years, Indian contemporary an has found its due recognition on the international stage. By bringing this highly acclaimed, cutting edge exhibition to India, the NGMA hopes [o facilitate a meaningful engagement between artists and their works, to understand how the art resonates in its own environment."

The 34 artists and two collectives represented in this exhibition conicme from all around India, from the metropolises of Delhi and Mumbai to the rural regions of Kondagaon and Midnapur, embodying a wide range of generational and social contexts. The works of art include large installations and intimate drawings, and encompass a variety of visual cultures, traversing the conventional divides of urban and rural, fine and folk art,. and high and popular culture.

"Edge of Desire is a signature art event that marks the opening of the Asia Society India Centre. The exhibition is first in a series of international art and cultural events 'hat we will bring to audiences in South Asia', says Bunty Chand. Executive Director, Asia Society India Centre.

In the past two years this exhibition has travelled to various locations in Australia, the United States, and Mexico. The show, culminating in its home country, is a continuing dialogue with the society, people and culture that have inspired the art and its makers.

The selection of works explores the role of place and desire in the creation of visual art in contemporary India, at a time defined by economic globalization and political fundamentalism. The exhibition investigates the impact of these germinal forces on the work of a diverse group of artists who represent different generations, regions, and social contexts. Their work spans several professional, material, and disciplinary boundaries, extending across urban, gallery-based practice and Adivasi (The tribal peoples of India), folk, and popular visual cultures. There are clearly discernible links, dialogues, and arguments across this spectrum. The exhibition contributes to a contemporary understanding of the diversity of visual culture in contemporary India.

Nilima Sheikh's series of painted scrolls (2003-04) made specifically for this exhibition, reference several centuries of writing inspired by Kashmir in an extended meditation on desire and loss.

Some of the works in the exhibition are concerned with the artists' relationships with the many guises of popular culture in contemporary India: the visual culture of television, advertising, cinema and Bollywood, and the unruly, mixed-up visions characterized by everyday life on the street. Atul Dodiya's triptych, Tomb's Day (2001) makes parodic references to one of India's stereotypical icons, the Taj Mahal. Executed in the visual style of billboard painting, the work is in pad an ironic commentary on the media furor surrounding the visits to India by Presidents Clinton and Putin.

Certain works also examine migration and transience as major features of the contemporary Indian experience. Works included under this theme range from personal histories and realist commentaries to Fabrications of self-transformation. Subodh Gupta's self-portrait, Bihari (1999) is a wry commentary on the ' artist's migration from his native Bihar to upwardly mobile Gurgaon, in Delhi. In this work he uses cow dung to cover the painting with an LED spelling out Bi-ha-ri, a person from Bihar but also a derogatory term in India, implying uncouth ness

The exhibition also encompasses works that conflate regenerating materials and renewal of tradition, and that are playful, often satirizing popular consumer culture. Sharmila Samant's work, A Handmade Saree (1998)3 is painstakingly crafted from 1,800 Coca-Cola bottle caps fastened together with steel shackles. Draped as in a boutique display, it reveals traditional textile patterns such as mango motifs. On the floor, three framed texts provide the formal meanings of the terms "handmade." "saree" and "coke."

Another exhibition highlight is L.N. Tallur's large scale and brightly colored, inflatable vinyl installation Made in England; A temple designed for India (2000), which addresses the mania for shrines and the search for spiritual mots. Viewers can enter the darkened sanctum of this easily transportable temple. 

of the participating artists—who represent three generations— some are internationally recognized, some are well-established and some are among the country's most innovative, emerging artists. They include: Ganga Devi Bhatt, Manu Chitrakar, Swarna Chitrakar, Santosh Kumar Das, Atul Dodiya, Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta. Archana Hande, N..S. Harsha, Rummana Hussain, Tushar Joag. 

Related Education and Outreach Programmes:

The NGMA and Asia Society India Centre have organized various educational and outreach programmes. This includes a half-day artist symposium, daily guided tours, film screenings, artist-led gallery walks, artist-led workshops for college students and programmes for women, senior citizens and children with disabilities.