La Biennale di Venezia presents Indian Interior

From Tuesday 2^nd to Sunday 28^th December 2025, at Bikaner House in New Delhi (India), La Biennale di Venezia presents Indian Interior, in collaboration with Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi. This marks the fourth leg of the Special Project by the Historical Archive of La Biennale di Venezia – International Centre for Research on the Contemporary Arts, titled The Wind Makes the Sky. La Biennale di Venezia in the footsteps of Marco Polo, curated by Luigia Lonardelli. The project retraces the journey of Marco Polo on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of his death (1324–2024). Following its inauguration in Hangzhou (China) and its subsequent legs in Venice (Italy) and Istanbul (Turkey), the project continues its journey to New Delhi (India).

“With Indian Interior La Biennale di Venezia reaches New Delhi – states Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, President of La Biennale – another chapter in a project whose shape and meaning emerge through the very concreteness of its realization. India, Bhārat, in its dazzling presence, asserts itself as a place of research and innovation, capable of bringing together craftsmanship, design, and visual arts in a new balance which honors the elevated concept of the artifact far beyond rigid disciplinary boundaries. La Biennale di Venezia thus reaffirms its vocation to support ever broader, future-oriented visions, with renewed forms of dialogue between creative practices, institutions, and territories."

Through Indian Interior, La Biennale and its Historical Archive highlight the dialogue between arts, cultures, and languages, tracing a path that, following in the footsteps of Marco Polo, connects tradition and contemporaneity, East and West. The project reflects on seemingly marginal aspects of artistic production, bearing witness to the Biennale’s attention to the processes of aestheticization of everyday life that permeate the intimacy of our living spaces, while exploring a range of attitudes that, silently and inexorably, are reshaping the defining features of the creative system.

The exhibition narrates the creative identity of contemporary India—an archipelago of cultures and languages that redefines the boundaries between art, design, and craftsmanship. It embodies an open way of thinking, where function and ornament, production and research coexist in balance. Indian Interior presents some of the personalities who, over the past decades, have redefined the country’s creative landscape. The artists reflect social and economic transformations, reimagining discarded materials and assigning new meanings to the concept of value. The project willingly embraces commercial display dynamics, without seeking to separate individual creations into distinct spaces. Each work constructs its own environment— an Indian interior— where it is hard to distinguish one from another. Creativity thus becomes a tool for inclusion and sustainability, engaging with the global challenges of the present. The exhibition marks a paradigm shift in the understanding of design practice, overcoming the cultural and visual barriers of the West. The “interior” becomes a shared space—both physical and mental—where freedom of expression meets social transformation.

“The Indian Interior – explains the Curator – frees the gaze from any kind of semantic  construct, accepting as concluded a phase of industrialization that has led to the disconnection between applied arts and other fields of creativity.’"

“KNMA is proud to partner with the Historical Archive of La Biennale di Venezia to bring the exhibition Indian Interior, fourth stage of The Wind Makes the Sky. La Biennale di Venezia in the footsteps of Marco Polo in the footsteps of Marco Polo to Delhi –said Kiran Nadar, KNMA Chairperson and Founder – India remains Marco Polo's last memory of the East—a land that captivated him with its markets, materials, and extraordinary natural abundance. Today, Indian Interior explores those liminal spaces of artistic production, celebrating how contemporary Indian creatives are reshaping the creative system through everyday aesthetics and transformative design. The synergies between KNMA’s mission and this exhibition’s curatorial framework to elevate and contextualize the dynamic, boundary-breaking creativity emerging from the subcontinent could not be more profound. We look forward to being part of this vibrant dialogue around art, design, and our shared cultural future.”

Gunjan Gupta
(Mumbai, 1974)

Gunjan Gupta has earned a Master’s degree from London’s Central St. Martins College in 2006. That same year, she founded Studio Wrap, a New Delhi based luxury interiors, furniture and product design studio that conceptually looks at how wrapping imbues any object or space with a new identity and set of values named after an obsolete Indian craft. Wrap is committed to sustainable materials and principles as well as high-end handicraft. The studio works with traditional craft communities in India to develop a range of contemporary furniture and accessories. Gupta describes her work as a playful blend of Indian forms and rituals transformed into contemporary handmade objects having universal appeal that are functional and sculptural at the time. Her recognizable designs have been showcased at leading design fairs, blurring the boundaries between art and design, she was invited to exhibit her work at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan as well as in many Biennales.Making a bold statement in its grand stature and form, her artwork is part of Gunjan Gupta’s world-famous bicycle throne series that captures the everyday sighting of bicycle vendors in India into a sculptural seat. Appearing luxurious and opulent, the chair is composed of one of India’s most common objects—the bartan (cooking brass vessel) hand crafted by the thateran community in India.

Studio Raw Material
(Jaipur and Makrana, working together since 2016)

Studio Raw Material is a design practice based in the desert plains of Rajasthan, working at the intersection of objects, spaces, and culture. Grounded in the framework of situatedness and regionality, its work engages deeply with the material, craft, and people of its environment. The practice begins with what already exists, transforming remnants charged with history and place. Emerging from this landscape where vernacular craft practices have existed outside urban center sand formal design systems, the studio observes and documents these approaches. Here, thinking and making merge through a slow, investigative rhythm of the hand. Through this lens, Studio Raw Material reframes conventional notions of value and makes space for new ways of seeing and working. Their latest series, Khokhar, is represented by Friedman Benda Gallery. In 2021, Studio Raw Material was named Emerging Design Studio of the Year by Dezeen Awards. Their research is an acknowledgment of the place where they are based, its ground and the geological reserves that form the crux of the practice. Their series reflects the scale of the quarries they draw from, formed centuries prior and running kilometres long in the landscape. A study of a deep history and material tradition, approached with a contemporary poetic sensibility that displaces value from the whole to its fragments and gaps.

Karishma Swali and Chanakya School of Craft
(Mumbai, 1977; Mumbai since 2016)

Karishma Swali is an artist and craft practitioner committed to preserving India’s intangible cultural heritage. Influenced by the philosophies of Rabindranath Tagore and Jiddu Krishnamurti, she leads Chanakya International and founded the Chanakya Foundation in 2015 to advance cultural sustainability and skill development. In 2016, she established the Chanakya School of Craft, a nonprofit institution dedicated to empowering women through craft and culture. The school’s holistic curriculum teaches over 300 hand-embroidery techniques and has trained more than 1,300 women. Swali’s interdisciplinary practice situates handcraftsmanship within a contemporary framework, engaging in significant collaborations with celebrated artists including Judy Chicago, Mickalene Thomas, Faith Ringgold, and Barthélémy Toguo. In 2025 En Route was unveiled at the Vatican Apostolic Library. Her contributions have received international recognition, including the Badass Art Woman Award (BAWA, 2024), as well as France’s Ordre national du Mérite and the Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2024).
Inner Universe is guided by the notion of art rooted in community. The work invites its viewers to engage with it by establishing connections between man and nature using raw threads. The sculptures explore the space between anthropomorphic forms and abstract vessels of knowledge. Primitive in shape yet complex in concept and technique, these sculptures balance the playful spirit of experimentation with a brute, spare physicality.

Thukral and Tagra
(Delhi, working together since 2003)

Thukral and Tagra over these two decades have engaged with questions of migration, displacement, and ephemerality through painting, archiving, publishing and gaming. Delhi-based artist duo comprising Jiten Thukral (1976, Jalandhar, Punjab) and Sumir Tagra (1979, New Dealhi) develop new formats of public engagement that expand the threshold of what art can do. Their initiatives include a non-profit foundation addressing social issues through education and art; Pollinator.io, a collaborative learning lab fostering cross-disciplinary exchange; andArchive, a publishing and distribution platform that reimagines the potential of print and the archive; and Sustaina India, founded with the think tank CEEW, positions the arts as a catalyst for climate action. They also curate “Multiplay” at the Serendipity Arts Festival, an immersive program of multi-sensory participatory installations designed to bridge gaps between audiences and exhibitions, making art accessible across diverse backgrounds and approaches while breaking away from conventional spectatorial protocols of “high art. An arboretum is a type of botanical garden that focuses on the cultivation of trees, shrubs, and other woody plants. Arboretum is a series of pixels and paintings where a community of trees take over the dream and imaginary compositions the artists are known for. They infuse meticulous realism with glitches provoking us to see the real as glitch and glitch as the real.

Asim Waqif
(1978, Hyderabad)

Asim Waqif studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi. After working as an art director for film and television, he turned to independent video and documentary production before moving into a dedicated art practice. His recent projects mark a crossover between architecture, art and design, often referencing urban ecologies and the politics of occupying public spaces. Rooted in ecological and anthropological inquiry, Waqif’s works draw froma vernacular systems of managing water, waste and architecture. Known for his painstaking manual processes and use of reclaimed materials, he constructs immersive environments that are sometimes designed to decay. His major projects include Bordel Monstre (Palais de Tokyo, Parigi, 2012), Salvage (Vancouver, 2017), Improvise (Kochi Muziris Biennale, 2022), Venu (Hayward Gallery, Londra, 2023), Assume the Risk (Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, 2023) e Min Rukam (Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah, 2025). In his work he brings together two very different building elements: an aluminum composite panel that’s been precision cut by a CNC router and then hand folded, and a bamboo scaffold erected with traditional, non chemical seasoning techniques. Bamboo scaffolding, once a common sight on construction sites, has since been outlawed by CPWD regulations and replaced by industrial steel. In other words, a renewable, locally sourced technology was pushed aside in favor of mass produced, heavy duty material. Rooted in ecological and anthropological curiosity, his practice turns this piece into a poignant metaphor for the slow erosion of vernacular knowledge under the weight of modernization.

The graphic identity and brand design of this Special Project are created by Headline, Rovereto (Italy). The brand’s design is structured through geometrically tridimensional elements that, in their final configuration, form the symbol of the Dao. This visual choice not merely aesthetic but deeply conceptual: the geometric shapes symbolize the articulated and complex nature of the journey, evoking the idea of forward movement and progress.

La Biennale di Venezia was established in 1895 and is acknowledged today as one  of the most prestigious cultural institutions. La Biennale di Venezia stands at the forefront of research and promotion of new contemporary art trends and organizes events in all its specific Departments: Art (1895), Architecture (1980), Cinema (1932), Theatre (1934), Dance (1999), Music (1930) – alongside exhibitions, performing arts, research and training activities. The history of La Biennale di Venezia from 1895 to the present is documented in the Library at the Central Pavilion in the Giardini and in the Historical Archive in its offices in Marghera, pending its move to the new headquarters at the Arsenale. The Historical Archive also represents an International Centre for Research on Contemporary Arts, where the documents become living material for new research and experimentation. This takes place through the actions of La Biennale itself, of the Artistic Directors of the different departments, of the students and researchers from all over the world, and in the collaborations with Universities and Cultural Institutions.

Established through the initiative of avid art collector Kiran Nadar, in January 2010 Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is India's first private museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art from the subcontinent. The Museum is a non-commercial, not-for-profit institution supported by the Shiv Nadar Foundation, fostering a dynamic relationship between art and culture through exhibitions, publications, and public programs. Its expanding collection of over 15,000 works features some of the most significant modernist and contemporary works. Now broadening its scope to include classical, folk, and tribal art, the collection spans historical trajectories from the 3rd century BCE to 20th-century Indian art, alongside the experimental practices of young contemporaries. KNMA is set to evolve into a landmark cultural destination featuring exhibition spaces, performance arts centre, education facilities, archives, and library in an upcoming standalone 100,000-square-meter, architectural marvel near Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi.

The initiative is carried out also with the sustenance of the Italian Cultural Institute of New Delhi, an official institution of the Italian Republic that promotes and disseminates the Italian language and culture in India through the organization of cultural events aimed at fostering the exchange of ideas, arts, and sciences.

During the first leg in Hangzhou – with the exhibition titled The Perfect Path, inaugurated on November 9^th, 2024, at the CAA Art Museum and visited by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella – the project concentrated on the latest generation of Chinese artists who are looking for their own personal path.

In the second leg in Venice, the exhibition Gulnur Mukazhanova. Memory of Hope, which opened on December 10^th, focused instead on a geographical area traced by a lesser-known journey—that of Niccolò and Matteo, Marco Polo’s father and uncle. Through their early explorations, they conceived the idea of venturing further east, crossing the vast steppes of Kazakhstan to follow one of the countless routes leading to the Orient. In the third leg in Istanbul, held at Artİstanbul Feshane, Amfibio Sound Days by the artist Cevdet Erek showcased the latest explorations of Istanbul’s music scene, including reinterpretations of the traditional repertoire.

A special thanks to Brunello Cucinelli, supporter of the project The Wind Makes the Sky. La Biennale di Venezia in the footsteps of Marco Polo.