From Delhi to St. Petersburg: Contemporary Indian art finds a home at State Hermitage Museum

ST PETERSBURG

For the first time in its 260-year history, the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia, is presenting a major exhibition of contemporary Indian art. Titled Sediments of Becoming: Fossilised Present, Summoned Pasts, the exhibition (June 4-October 4) brings together 11 Indian artists in a landmark showcase that places contemporary Indian artistic practice within one of the world’s most prestigious cultural institutions.

The showcase marks a significant moment not only for the Hermitage but also for the growing international visibility of contemporary Indian art. “It seeks to create a dialogue between contemporary artistic practices and historical collections, exploring how memory, history, identity and material culture continue to shape the present. Unlike many international exhibitions that emerge through formal institutional partnerships, this project was born from artistic relationships and cultural curiosity,” says guest curator Tunty Chauhan, founder of the Delhi-based Threshold Gallery.

The exhibition grew out of “friendships, horizontal connections” and “a genuine desire to understand the other”. That ethos informs a project that prioritises conversation and exchange, bringing together artists, ideas and histories across geographical and cultural boundaries, adds Chauhan.

The significance of the exhibition extends beyond the gallery walls. For the Hermitage, it marks an important expansion of its engagement with contemporary South Asian art and acknowledges the growing influence of Indian artists within the global cultural discourse. For the artists, it offers a rare opportunity to present their work in one of the world’s most respected museums and to engage with audiences that may be encountering contemporary Indian art for the first time.

Built on dialogue, not diplomacy

Several of the Indian artists created works specifically for the project following their engagement with the Hermitage collections during a residency programme at the museum in 2025. The resulting exhibition offers a compelling snapshot of contemporary Indian art today while examining its connections to deeper historical and cultural narratives.

A defining feature of Sediments of Becoming: Fossilised Present, Summoned Pasts, say artists, is the way contemporary works are presented alongside historical objects from the collections of the State Hermitage Museum, the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) and the National Library of Russia. Icons, frescoes, graphic works and decorative arts are in conversation with contemporary artworks, encouraging visitors to consider how artistic traditions evolve and endure across centuries.

Mapping change, displacement and uncertainty

Among the participating artists is Kolkata-based Debashish Mukherjee, whose work examines the transformation of India’s urban landscapes under the pressures of modern development. His installation, The Culture Flux, explores the tensions between preservation and progress.

“My artwork is an abstract mapping of the unsettling transformation of India’s heritage cities under the pressure of rapid urbanisation,” Mukherjee says. “The Culture Flux explores the fragile intersection between tradition and modernity, where centuries-old cultural legacies are quietly being erased to make way for concrete, commercialised futures.”

Through layered visual forms and abstract cartographies, the work reflects on the erosion of cultural memory and the changing identities of India’s historic cities. Kolkata-based artist Anindita Bhattacharya’s work explores instability, displacement and environmental transformation. Her practice focuses on the gradual shifts that alter landscapes and relationships over time, often in ways that remain invisible until they become irreversible.

“I am interested in how environments shift beyond recognition, and how what once held begins to loosen,” Bhattacharya explains. “Familiar territories give way, not suddenly, but through gradual disorientation, where the ground becomes uncertain and boundaries no longer hold.”

Her work considers how both human and non-human bodies navigate conditions of uncertainty. “Within this, bodies move through unstable modes of survival, carried between resistance and adaptation. These are not events that resolve, but conditions that linger and accumulate.”

Rather than depicting environmental crises directly, Bhattacharya turns to metaphor. “The work approaches this through metaphor rather than depiction,” she says. “The sea becomes a condition, restless, without edge, within which boundaries dissolve and orientation drifts. In such a state, the idea of a shore, as edge, refuge, or return, begins to give way—not only submerged, but forgotten.”

The contemporary meets the centuries-old

Goa-based artist Afrah Shafiq brings another dimension to the exhibition through his exploration of technology, materiality and human experience. His work examines how contemporary life is increasingly shaped by digital systems while remaining rooted in physical and sensory realities.

“I often seek ways to retain the tactile within the digital and the poetry within technology,” Shafiq says, describing an artistic approach that resists viewing technology as purely functional or detached from human emotion.

His contribution reflects one of the exhibition’s broader concerns: how contemporary artists navigate rapidly changing realities while maintaining connections to memory, materiality and lived experience. In doing so, Shafiq’s work offers a nuanced perspective on the relationship between technological innovation and human creativity.

The exhibition’s curatorial framework is anchored by the dialogue between historical and contemporary objects. According to Marina Schulz, head of the Contemporary Art Department at the State Hermitage Museum, the juxtaposition is not intended to lend authority to contemporary works, but rather “to provide historical context and illuminate the artistic traditions upon which Indian artists draw”.

Schulz describes the exhibition’s ambition as uncovering “parallels, connections and unexpected affinities” that allow audiences to engage intuitively with even complex artistic ideas. The exhibition stands as both a historic institutional milestone and a powerful reminder of art’s ability to create connections across cultures, generations and borders.