It's 4 pm on a Saturday evening and the central courtyard of New Delhi's National Museum has transformed into a playground for shadows cast by the late afternoon sun. On an ordinary day, this space is a hub for conversations with friends or scholars after viewing the artefacts housed in the museum's numerous galleries. However, today, history has come alive in this courtyard. The intrigues of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan's court are being played out for visitors through a staged conversation between the two princesses, Jahanara and Roshanara. This theatrical presentation, titled Shah Jahan's Daughters, is the first in the National Museum History Performance Series that will tell stories from the past.
The idea is novel to Indian museums - to explore the performing arts space to make history more contextual and topical. Internationally, though, this is a trend that has caught on with several major museums. For instance, The Museum of Modern Art, or MOMA, in New York has a unique performance programme in which "landmark performances from the past will be revisited and, in doing so, will be reactivated and redefined," states the programme note. The objective is to establish a dialogue between the present and the past by using the spaces in and around the museum. MOMA recently concluded one such performance series about James Lee Byars, a famous artistic figure from the last century who produced a great body of work - sculptures, costumes, "performable" paper pieces, film, ink paintings and much more.
At National Museum, the outreach programme that was instituted earlier this year has been similarly striving to engage the audiences through regular lectures and curators' walks. "But we wanted to explore possibilities other than talks. In doing so, we discovered that while it is easy to do a music and dance performance, it is very difficult to centre it on a subject that is relevant to a historical theme," says Joyoti Roy, outreach consultant with the museum.
The idea of replicating a performance like this at the museum was interesting to the group - it was exciting to use spaces differently to make meaning of history. According to Yuveka Singh, co-founder, Darwesh, after such performances, people will surely view these spaces differently. "For instance, if you hold a performance by the Behrupiyas in a gallery that houses Shiva idols, it would engage people more actively," she says.
The group is staging Shah Jahan's Daughters in five scenes at the National Museum, starting from the time that Shah Jahan decides to build the Kala Mahal. "The conversation between the two depicts the politics of the time - the precarious position of the emperor with Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb on opposing sides," says Singh. The group is planning more such performances at the Museum, one such being the story of Aurangzeb to be told in the armoury gallery. "The museum is planning to do an arms and armoury week later this year. This performance could be part of that," says Roy while adding that more such events are in the pipeline, to take place at least once in two months. "I am definitely looking at a dastangoi performance, contemporary narrations of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, translations of vernacular poetry and much more. The calendar is still being put in place," she says.
The idea is novel to Indian museums - to explore the performing arts space to make history more contextual and topical. Internationally, though, this is a trend that has caught on with several major museums. For instance, The Museum of Modern Art, or MOMA, in New York has a unique performance programme in which "landmark performances from the past will be revisited and, in doing so, will be reactivated and redefined," states the programme note. The objective is to establish a dialogue between the present and the past by using the spaces in and around the museum. MOMA recently concluded one such performance series about James Lee Byars, a famous artistic figure from the last century who produced a great body of work - sculptures, costumes, "performable" paper pieces, film, ink paintings and much more.
At National Museum, the outreach programme that was instituted earlier this year has been similarly striving to engage the audiences through regular lectures and curators' walks. "But we wanted to explore possibilities other than talks. In doing so, we discovered that while it is easy to do a music and dance performance, it is very difficult to centre it on a subject that is relevant to a historical theme," says Joyoti Roy, outreach consultant with the museum.
Also Read
It was while scouting for organisations that could participate in the series that Roy came across Darwesh, a Delhi-based organisation committed to excavating stories that are hidden in the past, locked in the present and buried within ourselves. Since last September they have been conducting performative and thematic walks around Delhi. Usually Princess Roshanara's story is enacted in the baradari within the Roshanara Gardens where she is buried, with the tomb acting as a backdrop to the final scene of her death.
The idea of replicating a performance like this at the museum was interesting to the group - it was exciting to use spaces differently to make meaning of history. According to Yuveka Singh, co-founder, Darwesh, after such performances, people will surely view these spaces differently. "For instance, if you hold a performance by the Behrupiyas in a gallery that houses Shiva idols, it would engage people more actively," she says.
The group is staging Shah Jahan's Daughters in five scenes at the National Museum, starting from the time that Shah Jahan decides to build the Kala Mahal. "The conversation between the two depicts the politics of the time - the precarious position of the emperor with Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb on opposing sides," says Singh. The group is planning more such performances at the Museum, one such being the story of Aurangzeb to be told in the armoury gallery. "The museum is planning to do an arms and armoury week later this year. This performance could be part of that," says Roy while adding that more such events are in the pipeline, to take place at least once in two months. "I am definitely looking at a dastangoi performance, contemporary narrations of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, translations of vernacular poetry and much more. The calendar is still being put in place," she says.