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.”

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.