COSMIC GARDEN AT THE 60TH LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA 2024

Images courtesy of Cosmic Garden & Dior

Supported by the House of Dior and curated by Maria Alicata and Paola Ugolini

Perpetuating the collaboration between Dior, Chanakya and the couple Madhvi and Manu Parekh, which was notably woven for the Dior spring-summer 2022 haute couture collection, the Chanakya Foundation presents Cosmic Garden at the Biennale Arte 2024.

The exhibition unveils paintings and sculptures by Indian artists Madhvi Parekh and Manu Parekh, as well as a series of new works created by the artists in partnership with Karishma Swali and the graduates at the Chanakya School of Craft.

“We are deeply honored that Cosmic Garden has been selected as a collateral event of the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia. The Chanakya School of Craft was a dream shared with Maria Grazia Chiuri to conserve artisanal heritage. We believed the power of craft could uplift communities, and this exhibition is an evolution that stems from my 25-year dialogue with Maria Grazia Chiuri to blur assumed hierarchies within fine art“ , Karishma Swali, Creative Director of the Chanakya School of Craft.

Cosmic Garden is conceived as an artistic narrative tracing fertile exchanges rooted in craft from the late 1970s to the present day.

Presented by Melandas Indonesia

Introducing a new vocabulary through a collective, interdisciplinary approach, the Chanakya workshops and the Chanakya School of Craft have brought to life a variety of magnificent works of mixed media, each of them employing up to 32 handcraft techniques and taking up to 16,000 hours to realize. Composed of organic materials such as linen, jute, silk and cotton, the resulting pieces transcend the boundaries between art and craft.

The oeuvre of Madhvi and Manu Parekh, although different in style, is closely linked to the spiritual heritage of their country, from a cultural point of view. In Madhvi Parekh’s paintings, the real and the imaginary intertwine to produce a fantastic world, populated by figures from the Vedic pantheon. Manu Parekh, for his part, uses the surface of the canvas as a diaphragm for his mental landscapes and abstract illustrations inspired by the Indian esoteric tradition.

Presented by the Chanakya Foundation at the Salone Verde – Art & Social Club, located in the historic Rialto district, this poetic rendezvous supported by the House of Dior and curated by Maria Alicata and Paola Ugolini, celebrates the emergence of a new artistic language, in tribute to feminine power, with its transforming energy.

Cosmic Garden, Madhvi Parekh, Manu Parekh, Karishma Swali, from April 20 to November 24, 2024, 10 am to 6 pm, Salone Verde – Art & Social Club.