Museum of Art & Photography
Located in the heart of the city, MAP is home to a growing collection of paintings, sculptures, textiles, photographs, popular culture and more, dating from the 10th century to the present day. The museum spans 6 storeys and includes art galleries, digital experience centres, a dedicated research and conservation lab as well as a shop, cafe, member’s lounge and rooftop alfresco restaurant.
Bengaluru, India.
Name of the practice nominated: Beyond Theory
Describe the practice, program, or project, what innovative approach is proposed, and in which core museum activities it applies:
Beyond Theory is an annual conference, programmed under the museum’s permanent exhibition VISIBLE/INVISIBLE that explores the representation of women and gender through artworks in the collection, bringing together artists, art workers, academics and cultural practitioners for an honest survey of the arts sector in South Asia.
It became an occasion to look inward and offer a platform for our immediate community–artists and art workers. How do we address the difficult contexts that they have worked in and continue to navigate? Knowledge and resource exchange often happens in conference settings that are exclusive, attended by the same heavyweights and industry leaders; there is a serious lack of meaningful networking opportunities for people who fall outside of this fold–those who have been historically marginalised.
#MeToo in the arts saw a surge of momentum, but the dust settled without any sustained redressal or accountability from the sector that enabled it. In this moment, the conference gathers practitioners who are working towards building sustainability and justice in the arts and addressing the negligence that allowed for these multiple breakdowns–a lack of infrastructure, inaccessibility, a crisis of care, precarity around funding and more. It becomes a platform for institutions and individuals at various levels to learn from each other and to think of feminist models of work.
The model of the conference is innovative in several ways. It consciously steps away from conventional academic conference formats and is not a showcase of polished ideas or final forms. In the South Asian context, where the professionalisation of the sector does not have the same historical trajectory as other parts of the world, it is important to make space for doubt and learning. This is a space for people who are asking feminist questions about their work and navigating complex intersections, examining how gendered politics, caste histories, conflict, and other power hierarchies manifest within the arts sector.
The conference has seen three iterations. This activity is classified as exhibition programming and is supported by the Ford Foundation.
Explain in one sentence why you think the project you nominate is outstanding and could serve as an example for the entire community of modern and contemporary art museums.
The conference is understood as a space to think together - thinking with each other, to critique institutional structures without the need to dismantle them, but with the belief that individuals can create change, and that there is an opportunity to learn from each other, across geographies, institutional settings, or the lack of the same.
Explain why this practice or program is relevant and sustainable in creating meaningful and lasting connections with people, communities, and the museum context with a medium to long-term vision.
Community: We have received continued appreciation and participation from a sustained audience group over the three years, especially students and artists who are looking forward to this annual event. The practitioners whom we invite end up working together.
Scale: We have received proposals from speakers who want to adopt the conference and host iterations elsewhere to explore other queries within feminist contemporary practice. So the relevance of it resonated, and having an afterlife is a shared hope and not just borne by the institution.
Diversity: The speaker line-up each year has brought together practices that expose power hierarchies framed by factors including but not limited to gender–like caste, race, sex, sexuality, disability and more. This has also meant that audiences who are from gender and sexuality minority backgrounds, anti-caste individuals/groups and practitioners from other minority communities in the region engage with us through these programs but continue to collaborate beyond the scope of the conference.
What are the outcomes of the practice you are most proud of?
One of the outcomes we’re most proud of is the community of artists, art workers, and academics we’ve been able to bring together through Beyond Theory. A key example is our ongoing collaboration with theatre practitioner Anuja Ghosalkar, developed over the three editions of the conference.
- The continued collaboration and trust built over three years for a concluding performance for the conference.
- Each year, we have worked towards commissioning a piece by Anuja that builds on how we think of accessibility in theatre practice. The third year’s performance, Talk to Me, is a devised performance using Indian Sign Language, text, images, and silences to discover ways of meaningful interaction. It brings together a deaf performer with non-sign language artists from various fields–to our knowledge, this is the first of its kind show in India.
How has the nominated practice changed your methods and ways of working?
The conference has shaped our methods by emphasising long-term collaboration. We’ve moved beyond working primarily with formal institutional partners to cultivating sustained relationships with independent practitioners across South Asia. These partnerships, built on trust and mutual learning, are central to how we now think about curatorial and organisational work.
Additionally, the nominated practice has shifted our approach to accessibility, from treating it as an add-on or bureaucratic requirement to embedding it meaningfully within creative processes. In Talk to Me, for instance, Indian Sign Language wasn’t just offered as a translation service but became integral to the structure and aesthetics of the performance itself.
This reframing has challenged us to think more expansively and inventively about inclusion across all our programmes.
https://map-india.org/map-events/beyond-theorycontinuing- the-work/