The FICA Patrons Programme 2020-21 was launched with the welcome dinner hosted by our Advisory Board Member Tarana Sawhney in early March. Looking back at that evening, spent with our enthusiastic patrons sharing and discussing plans for the year to come, feels even more special. Soon after, we found ourselves in the midst of a national lockdown in the face of COVID-19 epidemic.
Through a series of virtual walkthroughs and online presentations by global curators, the FICA Patrons Programme introduced new ways of engaging with art, from the comfort of our homes. Through the course of the year, we had some memorable interactions with international museums and galleries, and also had the pleasure of hosting intimate yet wide-ranging conversations that have delved into contemporary art as exhibited, and museum collections.
We would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the FICA Patrons 2020-21:
Abhinav & Pallavi Khandelwal | Abhishek and Minal Somany | Akshay Chudosama | Alina Vadera | Anjali Chawla | Anurag Khanna | Aradhana & Gokul Mahna | Arti and Atul Kirloskar | Ashiesh Shah | Ashish Jain | Ashray Gujral | Bhavna Bhayana | Binoy Somaia | Dara Mehta -3 | Gayatree Juneja | Gunjan and Arjun Gupta | Isheta Dataraj Salgaokar | Jai Danani | Jayati and Mohan Puri |Kalyani Saha Chawla | Katya and Andrey Terebenin | Monica Davar | Nitya Bharany | Parul and Siddharth Gupta | Payal and Nikhil Sen | Pooja and Vedant Jhaver | Pooja Singhal | Priya Kapur | Priya Paul | Priya and Gaurav Goel | Pooja and Rahul Munjal | Radhika Gupta | Radhika Kapoor| Rajiv and Ekta Parekh | Roshni Nadar and Shikhar Malhotra | Ruchika Chanana | Sandeep Gupta | Sara Vetteth and Harsha Viji |Shalini and Sanjay Passi | Shalini and Vivek Gupta | Sheetal Ansal | Shreya Jain | Sonia and Sharuk Passi | Tara Singh Vachani | Tarini Jindal Handa |Vandana and Naveen Munjal | Vasudha Ruia | Vivek Sahni
Looking back at the Virtual Talk Series:
1 August 2020 | Behind the Scenes at the Met, with Shanay Jhaveri
We were delighted to be taken through the inner workings of one of the world's largest and most prominent museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York with a special focus on the South Asian collections, by curator Shanay Jhaveri. In his role as Assistant Curator, International Modern and Contemporary Art Collections, Shanay shared a close up view of special projects he has curated – the Mrinalini Mukherjee Retrospective titled Phenomenal Nature and a site specific installation for the MET Roof Garden by artist Huma Bhabha.
14 August 2020 | Wolfgang Tillmans: Today is the First Day, Exhibition Walkthrough with Curator Devrim Bayar
Curator at the WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels, Devrim Bayar led a lovely walkthrough of one of Wolfgang Tillmans' largest retrospective shows till date. Turner Prize Winner Wolfgang Tillmans is among a handful of artists have shaped the scope of contemporary art and influenced a younger generation. Through the exhibition walkthrough we were led by Devrim through anecdotes from the artist and contextual supplements that added layers to his spell-binding photographs. It was a unique exhibition to view through the lens of Zoom as it made us reflect further on the idea of the photograph as object, especially in the increasingly image-saturated world that Tillmans eulogises.
11 September 2020 | South Asian Art in the Tate Collection, with Devika Singh and Clara Kim
We were very pleased to have Clara Kim, (Daskalopoulos Senior Curator, International Art) and Devika Singh (Curator, International Art) take us through the collection of South Asian art at Tate Modern. The session shed light on the strategies of collecting that the museum pursues, along with their larger rationale behind investing deeply in transnational and transcultural representation. It was wonderful to be able to have a glimpse of several works by South Asian artists that Tate has procured, and look at the ways in which these have been activated over the years.
3 October 2020 | A Curator's Life in 10 Art Experiences, Amin Jaffar in conversation with Zain Masud
In a light-hearted yet critically insightful conversation with Zain Masud, senior curator at the Al Thani collection and former senior curator at V&A Museum, Amin Jaffer highlighted 10 of his most influential experiences in the art world, tracing his journey through art, objects and memories accumulated across his international tenure. From Peter Paul Rubens to Dip Chand and Johann Zoffany, he spent time reflecting on the manner in which his curiosity for the cultural other continues to inspire him and his curatorial vision even today.
2 December 2020 | Collecting, Curating, Collaborating: PEM and MFA Curators in Conversation
Our final virtual session of the Patrons Programme 2020 saw Siddhartha V. Shah (Peabody Essex Museum) and Laura Weinstein (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), in conversation with Brinda Kumar (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Threading together exhibitions, artists, references and goals for the year ahead from all 3 spaces of art, the talk led to delightful segues between the speakers that brought out shared experiences of curating and collecting in the contemporary moment.
