The utterance of the word sangam evokes at once a multiplicity of images: the union or coming together of people, the ancient and legendary assemblies of Tamil poets and scholars, and the confluence of rivers—most famously at Allahabad, where the Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati are said to converge. A site of holiness and spirituality, the Triveni Sangam sees the muddy waters of the Ganga and the aquamarine Yamuna turn into a singular force.

The notion of a sangam or confluence is deeply embedded in Indian culture. If the jugalbandis of classical music see two musicians on an equal footing engage in a playful yet competitive-collaborative performance, a sangam features distinct and sometimes dissimilar impulses, lineages and traditions fusing to create a synthesis.

The soon-to-open Art House at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre draws from this notion of unions and syntheses for its first exhibition, a group show bringing together 10 Indian and international artists, titled ‘Sangam/Confluence’. It is curated by the New York-based Jeffrey Deitch, artist, curator and art dealer with a career spanning 50 years, and Ranjit Hoskote, curator, poet and one of India’s foremost cultural theorists.

Through the exhibition, the curators identify three features as being central to Indian culture and civilisation over a period of time in history—confluence, multilingualism, and the interplay between ideas and materiality.

The impact of confluences is ubiquitous in India, whether it is the food we nourish ourselves with, or the faiths we turn to and practice. A rich example of confluence is Mughal architecture, where elements of Hindu temples, Rajput funerary monuments, and Iranian mausoleums come together. 

Just as the Indian subcontinent is no stranger to multilingualism—with people dreaming and speaking with ease in more than one language, right from their formative years—the curators use this concept as a metaphor for how Indian artists do not confine themselves to a singular language or medium of art production.

Terming it a “constant cycle of mutual replenishment”, the curators also bring our attention to the relationship between theory, abstraction and ideas on the one hand, and the realm of making—the process and materiality—on the other: consider Rabindranath Tagore’s utopian vision for learning at Santiniketan, where students could read alongside learning to sculpt and grow food.

The works of the five Indian artists in the exhibition will present various aspects of the country’s kaleidoscopic art scene, such as the poetics of sculpture, a robust painterly tradition and the speculative uses of drawing, Hoskote says. The five international artists featured in the show were chosen keeping in mind their meaningful connections to India, and the imprint that Indian aesthetics and culture have left on their practice, Deitch notes.

“The structuring principle of our exhibition is affinities, whether manifest or elusive. Our mise-en-scène will bring India-based and international artists into a shared space of relay, adjacency and conversation,” Hoskote says. For example, on the Art House’s first floor, Raqib Shaw’s work centred on mythology and the divine is in interaction with Bhupen Khakhar’s vivid oil-on-canvas paintings. Having taken in Bharti Kher’s thought-provoking sculpture on the second floor, visitors on the third and fourth floor will notice the stylistic contrasts between Shantibai’s works in wood, Lynda Benglis’s metal sculptures and upstairs, Ranjani Shettar’s abstract installation.

Embodying the themes and ideals of the exhibition, the process of moulding it from conception to fruition, too, was one of collaboration and discussion over the last few years, which the curators describe as being marvellous and rewarding. Though they have been familiar with each other’s work in the past, this exhibition marks Hoskote and Deitch’s first project together. 

As the opening exhibition, ‘Sangam/Confluence’ is a significant moment in the journeys of the Art House and the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, as it encourages visitors to ponder questions of transculturality and exchange in an increasingly connected, globalised world, where different identities and ideologies are in constant engagement and flux. As Hoskote puts it, “Each of us is nourished by a diversity of cultural sources… Only through the interplay of dissimilar energies do we gather the dynamic momentum to re-shape ourselves in creative and redemptive ways.”

‘Sangam/Confluence’ will be on view at the Art House, Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, Jio World Centre, Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai from April 3 to June 4, 2023. Open all days; 10am-10pm