India Art Fair, New Delhi: CP Kukreja Foundation for Design Excellence Collaborates With Vishal Dar to Celebrate the Architecture of Jawaharlal Nehru University
An exhibition curated by artist Vishal Dar will commemorate fifty years of the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus, late master architect CP Kukreja’s design of India's monumental educational campus.
January, 2024, New Delhi: In the vast national landscape of post-independent India, many imaginations were at play to shape a new democracy using tools and devices that would assist its people and, in turn, the nation, to match in step with a brave new world. Architecture has always played a vital role in the history of civilisation making. It has been several things at once — a document of its times, a mirror of its makers, a time capsule.
This exhibition, titled The Masterplan, aims to engage the viewer with narratives that have shaped India and its public. Speaking with the language that architects are best at, drawings and models, the ambition is to share the journey while adding to the architectural pedagogy, the makings of collective spaces, and the history of Modern India.The exhibition creates a synergy of art, architecture and design through the exhibition. Legendary late architect CP Kukreja’s pivotal and monumental first large-scale commission – the Jawaharlal Nehru University, which was built in Delhi in the 1970s. The exhibition takes us through 4 chapters, where we witness the intersections between architecture, citizenship, and nation-building.
The exhibition, a collaboration between the CP Kukreja Foundation for Design Excellence and artist Vishal Dar, will focus on the emergence of the first South-Asian attempt to create a vast university model at JNU, where an institution is imagined as a micro-city within the southern ridge of the Aravalli hills of New Delhi. Here, on these grounds, India would cultivate students learning to interact and dialogue with the world.
The design of the exhibition is imagined as a studio inside a pavilion that is both didactic and experiential. We engage with the geology and its context with the architecture that inhabits it and how the ecology and climate of this sanctuary are reflected in the devices that the architect employs to shape and align the built within the surroundings.
About JNU: Jawaharlal Nehru University is the foremost university in India, and a world-renowned centre for teaching and research. Ranked number one in India by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with a Grade Point of 3.91 (on a scale of 4), JNU was ranked no 3 among all universities in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework, Government of India, in 2016 and no 2 in 2017. JNU also received the Best University Award from the President of India in 2017.
About CP Kukreja Foundation for Design Excellence: CP Kukreja Foundation for Design Excellence’ has been instrumental in nurturing and promoting design education, research, and innovation in India. Named after the renowned architect and founder, Mr. C.P. Kukreja, the Foundation embodies the principles of innovation, creativity, and resilience to nurture a better tomorrow. Some of the Foundation's initiatives include:
The Tale of Two Cities, a series where the Foundation travels the world, exchanging notes from Indian cities with global leaders representing the world’s leading metros.
Deciphering Design With Dikshu, a talk series that creates design discourse with leaders from varied sectors such as heritage, culinary arts, fashion, design, and entrepreneurship.
CP Kukreja Design Trophy, launched this year as a joint venture with NASA India, provides design and architecture students a platform to unleash their creative potential.
Liveable Cities for the Future, a compendium of essays co-edited by Managing Principal Dikshu Kukreja and Columbia University Professor Geeta Mehta, and launched at the Think20 Summit in Mysuru.
About Late CP Kukreja: Ar. CP Kukreja was a legendary Architect who made significant contributions to the field of architecture in the last five decades not just in India but also at the global level. What started as his modest two-man firm has, today, has become not only one of India’s largest architectural practices with 200 professionals but has also been recognised amongst the top 100 Architecture firms in the world, thereby raising the profile of Indian architecture internationally.
About Dikshu C. Kukreja: Recently appointed as the Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Albania, Dikshu C. Kukreja is the Managing Principal of C.P. Kukreja Architects, one of the world’s largest architecture and urban design firms. He is also the man behind the Ayodhya Redevelopment Vision 2047. His work is rooted in contextuality and driven by a sustainable approach reinforced through innovative technologies.
About Arunima Kukreja: Arunima Kukreja is an ardent writer, an interior designer and a philanthropist who heads the CPKA Foundation for Design Excellence, which promotes consciousness in design cutting across genres. A student of history from St. Stephens College, Delhi University, and holding a diploma in environmental law, she was the Creative Head of the series Deciphering Design with Dikshu that aired on Disney+ Hotstar.
About Vishal Dar: Vishal K Dar is an artist based in Gurgaon, known for site-specific projects that deploy computer-programmed lights in large-scale abandoned sites. His works simultaneously invoke the vastly mythic and deeply personal, creating experience territories with digital technologies, architecture and earthly elements. Through place-making, he instils a sense of dreamlike quality in his works while still allowing them to address contemporary issues.
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Title
India Art Fair 2024Type
Festival / BiennialWebsite
Organizers
From
February 01, 2024 11:00 AMUntil
February 04, 2024 10:00 PMVenue
NSIC Exhibition Grounds Okhla, New Delhi, Delhi 110020, IndiaAddress