THE FOLD

The Fold as a curatorial theme became the apt concept, word and umbrella under which we placed artworks across 8 floors. This curation interprets The Fold as a fissure, a break, a pivot—be it moments in time or a line creating or deconstructing a form. In my view, the ethos of this collection is global shipping and trade, which is the result of historical cycles of human movement—and this Fold in innovation is represented from the ground floor upwards.

It was crucial to highlight that art is not hidden behind any cordoned-off area here. Rather, art is something that you can view from across two floors: in the case of the 18 feet tall, specially commissioned acrylic on canvas with mythological multitudes by Shrimanti Saha just as you enter the ground floor. Or, art is something you can walk through and inside and touch for yourself: in the case of Rathin Barman’s life-size architectural metal installation on the first floor.

On the 15th floor, Rana Begum’s jewel-toned metal artwork is the original inspiration for our name—The Fold. We spell out this floor with abstract heavy artworks ranging from the fold-ed lines of graphite by Idris Khan to prints highlighting the never-ending horizon line by Jyoti Bhatt and Ronny Sen. In artworks by Martand Khosla, Renuka Rajiv, Somnath Hore and Savia Mahajan, the viewer is introduced to wood, textile, paper pulp and ceramics, which are only the first bookend of the multitude of texture and materiality on this floor, and in this collection.

The second and final bookend to this viewing journey never arrives, as in this curation of the collection, the viewer will always find themselves invited to a series of conversations between form, material, and memory. This Fold in time is only the beginning of a viewer’s journey with The Eight Collection.