Building the Contemporary:

Power, Publics, and the New Indian Institution

Date: 11 Jan, 2026 | Time: 16:00 | Tata Theatre

Cultural institutions have never been neutral. They shape how knowledge, value and taste are defined, determining what is preserved, celebrated or forgotten. This session situates today’s surge in institution building within this longer history, asking what institutional power means in a world shaped by political uncertainty, ecological crisis, digital acceleration and fractured publics. As contemporary practice becomes fluid and interdisciplinary, institutions are no longer just sites of display or preservation, but spaces where publics are constructed and futures imagined. What power do institutions hold today, and how are they choosing to use it?