The Museum of Modern Art - MoMA has announced the opening of an exhibition that explores the ways modern architecture in South Asia shaped up "idealistic societal visions and emancipatory politics" of the post-independence period. Titled The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947–1985, the exhibition includes over 200 works, ranging from sketches and drawings to photographs and architecture models sourced from prominent lenders and institutions in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Following the end of British rule in 1947/48, architects of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka embraced modernism's values and characteristics as a means of highlighting their autonomy and national identities, and depicting their social progress. And with that, new approaches to architecture separated the nations from their British colonial past, such as the concrete governmental complexes of Dhaka and the passive houses of Colombo, and took advantage of the region’s craft traditions to produce experimental buildings.
The featured projects are put together by key figures such as Indian architect Balkrishna V. Doshi, the only South Asian winner of the Pritzker Prize in Architecture, Minnette de Silva, the first woman to become a licensed architect in Sri Lanka, and Yasmeen Lari, the first woman to qualify as architect in Pakistan. Their will address how architecture contributed to the process of decolonization and modernization for these nation-states.
The exhibition is organized around thematic sections, such as materials available, craft traditions, or the organization of labor. A large section on Institution Building demonstrates how cultural and governmental institutions showcase the social, political, and cultural forces at work in transforming South Asian societies post-independence. Another section explores the governments’ investments in building institutions of higher education. Industry and Infrastructure projects such as the Ceylon Steel Corporation Office Building at Oruwela and Achyut Kanvinde’s Dudhsagar Dairy in Mehsana, India, are also on display as a means of highlighting iconic structures that represent India’s vision towards the industrialization of agricultural production.
The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947–1985 will be view from February 20, 2022, until July 2, 2022.
The exhibition is organized by Martino Stierli, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, Anoma Pieris, guest curator and Professor, The University of Melbourne, and Sean Anderson, former Associate Curator, with Evangelos Kotsioris, Assistant Curator, Department of Architecture and Design.
