Architecture Moderne: Mumbai | Tel Aviv
A new exhibition celebrated 30 years of friendship between India and Israel
How is it that two cities, which lay 4,000 km apart – share surprising similarities?
A new exhibition addressed in Mumbai answered this question with a fascinating combination of striking photographs and introductory texts. The exhibit was displayed last June at the Claude Batley Gallery at Sir JJ College of Architecture.
In the 1930s, a new architectural development took place both in Tel Aviv and Mumbai. The urban image of the city transformed into a modernist weave of a new city fabric, with neatly laid out plots, uniform footprints and building heights, punctuated by skyline dominating facades of new building typologies.
This exhibition acknowledged the sorority of cities that shared an architecture of self-similarity, Art Deco in Mumbai and the Bauhaus Style in Tel Aviv. These are evident in cinemas, residential buildings, sacred spaces and more.
Through a series of striking photographs, viewers saw the similarities and contrasts between the “White City,” a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Tel Aviv, and The Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai.
The curator of the exhibition Architecture Moderne: Mumbai | Tel Aviv, Prof. Mustansir Dalvi, said: “Self-similarity, based on common notions of progress and international modernism, are the hallmarks of the growth of several cities around the world in the 1930s and the 1940s. This is true in the architectural and urban development of both Mumbai and Tel Aviv. This exhibition presents these using the simplest of means -- contemporary photographs, and allows the viewer to see for themselves how close we are, despite physical distances and cultural diversities.”
The Consul General of Israel in Mumbai, Mr. Kobbi Shoshani, said: “As an architecture enthusiast, it is heartwarming for me to see how the similarity and closeness between the people of Israel and India are also reflected in the architectural heritage of Tel Aviv and Mumbai. I am sure that the visitors to the exhibition will second that observation while enjoying this enriching cultural experience.”
The exhibition Architecture Moderne: Mumbai | Tel Aviv was a multi-pronged collaboration between the Consulate General Of Israel in Mumbai, Art Deco Mumbai, The Bauhaus Centre, Tel Aviv and Sir JJ College of Architecture, and celebrated 30 years of friendship between India and Israel.