Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim Tower 3, 2017, Cardboard, leaves, paper, 152 x 43 x 44 cm. Courtesy of the UAE Ministry of Culture and Youth, Bihar Museum and Lawrie Shabibi.
The G20 exhibition presents 20 Member nations, 9 guest museums from all over the world and 20 Indian artists coming together for art.
Together we art is based on the theme of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, a concept from the Maha Upanishad. Art reflects society, the concerns of community, from the political, to the cultural, from the traditional to the modern and finally to the contemporary. The world of art, of imagination, of creative expression is a sum of collective thought of the human spirit as articulated by visual artists. As artists articulate the pressing concerns of contemporary society one mode of expressing the key concepts which pave the way for a civil, plural and culturally diverse society is through traditional Indic wisdom and thoughts. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is an Indian concept which speaks of a Universal world, where one family signifies one world, one universe. Emerging from an important Indian philosophical text, the Maha Upanishad, the concept embraces the universal spirit of humanism and humanity. Vasudhaiva symbolizes Vishnu the creator, Vishnu who is the preserver of the world, becomes the icon of a universal family. The whole universe becomes a site of knowledge production and sustainability of lives through living culture and thereby the museum becomes a site of preservation of culture and heritage through the tools of inclusivity, universal acceptance, cross-cultural dialogues to make the world a space of peace and harmony through sustainable coexistence.
