ÍNDIA!

India and Brazil share a common bright horizon as vast developing powers, members of the BRIC emerging economies defying the world crisis. They are also both former colonies of Portugal, the source of this ambitious exhibition (the biggest this year at the CCBB), which will go on to travel to São Paulo and Brasília next year.

Covering eighteen rooms, INDIA! is a kaleidoscopic look at the cultural history of a country of 1.21 billion people, over 200 ethnic groups, six religions and 23 official languages, shown through works of art, photography and audio-visual resources and divided into four parts; 'Man', 'God', 'Formation of Modern India' and 'Contemporary Art'.

It starts off on the ground floor with a sculpture of Ganesha, alongside a contemporary sculpture by Ravinder Reddy, as if to sum up the huge temporal scope of the show, and, arriving on the first floor, sounds and visuals transport you into Indian daily life and culture, complete with moving images of nature and religious festivals.

'Man' represents the everyday existence of the Indian people over the centuries using unusual mediums like the traditional art of weaving to make saris, and the shadow puppets used for storytelling, an intrinsic part of Indian culture. 'God', meanwhile, explores India’s rich religious history through fifty sculptures, miniature paintings, objects and photos.

'The Formation of Modern India' aims to document more than 100 years of history through the Indian love affair with photography. From the fight for Independence from the British to today’s Bollywood stars, many of the pivotal figures that have helped shape modern India have been caught on camera and are represented here.

The title of the contemporary art section, 'India Lado a Lado', (India Side by Side) is a reference to both the past and present India shares with Brazil and the density and diversity of everyday life in India itself. The work of eighteen artists and two collectives living in India takes photographs, installations, videos, sculpture and paintings touching on themes such as the meeting of innovation and tradition and the rural and the urban. In short, a  fascinatingly deep exploration of the rich past and ever-evolving present of this nation and its people from the context of a fellow great developing nation.