The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai, India, unveiled UNDER THE SUN, renowned multimedia artist Doug Aitken’s first exhibition in the country, earlier this month. Exploring the past, present and future across three floors of NMACC’s Art House, the art exhibition features experiential installations, tactile sculptural art, a lighting installation and a film by Aitken that probes human experience in the rapidly changing digital age. Running from December 6, 2025 –  February 22, 2026, it brings together art and culture enthusiasts and creators in a fusion of traditional Indian craftsmanship and contemporary, digital art. Curated by Mafalda Kahane and Roya Sachs, and co-produced by Elizabeth Edelman Sachs of TRIADIC, the exhibition comprises site-specific installations produced over two years of working with Indian artisans,  providing a sensorial experience through tactility and reflection.

The exhibition is divided into three sections using the architecture of the building. The first floor, Past, features elemental landscapes and art sculptures of reclaimed wood, glass and textile art that highlight Aitken’s collaboration with Indian artisans. The second floor, NEW ERA, features a video installation spread across six screens that envelops the viewers in a kaleidoscopic environment of human connection. The third floor, LIGHTFALL/ OTHER WORLDS, comprises a light sculpture that channels the ever-changing possibilities and evolution of humankind and the digital age.

The American artist’s work is an exploration of medium, from sculptures and installations to films and architectural interventions, that often address modern conditions and immersive experiences. Collaborating with various artists and musicians, major exhibitions include Sleepwalkers (2007) at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and a large-scale survey of his works in a 2022 solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. In a conversation with STIR, Aitken delves into the creative process behind the exhibition, its ethos and his own process of creating art, edited excerpts from which are below:

Bansari Paghdar: You’ve described UNDER THE SUN as ‘a kind of modern mythology’. What stories or archetypes were you imagining when building this landscape of light, sound and craft—and how do you see this new mythology speaking to our present moment of constant change?

Doug Aitken: [I wanted to create] a body of work that wasn’t singular but plural—different encounters, experiences. The exhibition is divided over three floors; it’s almost like a book that has chapters. You move from space to space, and there are elements that change [across a loosely structured narrative]. The exhibition is very much about empowering the viewer. I wanted them to see these works and collage around them their own stories with meaning. The first floor is very organic and tactile, [comprising structures] made of reclaimed wood that we have found throughout the country and textile design pieces on which we collaborated with different artists. There is this crossover between the digital era and traditional craftsmanship.

The initial experience of the show is very physical; you are walking on gravel and rock. [Then you move towards the first floor towards the multimedia installation], a room made of mirrors with a film that I created that explores the story of a man in his 90s, who created the first cellphone and made the first call in the 1970s and made history. That story, to me, is a modern mythology. We see the ways of our culture as passing on knowledge and questions. This particular installation is all about exchange and connectivity—you and I are on our phones, I’m walking on the streets of South Mumbai right now—that moves at the speed of light.

The third floor is very different. You find a large two-storey light sculpture where thousands of lights are cascading like a waterfall, pouring down from above, creating a space that is without story, image and representation. It is truly an artwork where the viewer almost dissolves into it. You have these physical lighting designs along with an abstract landscape design that creates a contrast.

Bansari: The exhibition moves through the past, present and future across three floors. How did you conceptualise this temporal progression, and what memories do you hope visitors carry with them as they move upward through the installation?

Doug: I conceptualised the floors in terms of the journey of representation into abstraction. The physicality of the first floor, then the motion of the people carved from wood—there is something haunting, [something between] a minimal, digital era and something very raw and handcrafted. There is something natural and visceral about it. On the wall, there are [three large-scale tapestries that represent gestures of the hand]. The exhibits explore pre-history, a period before human occupation, where the landscape is metamorphosing and creating a canvas for life. As the exhibition progresses, the idea of figuration dissolves, and eventually we only have sound and light. I wanted the viewer to be in this state of transition and transformation when they are inside the exhibition.

Bansari: This is your first exhibition in India, built specifically for the NMACC. How did the Art House, as a container of artworks, inform the way you designed these site-specific commissions, and what kind of dialogue did you want to create between the space and the viewer?

Doug: When I visited the space about two years ago, I was struck by how the exhibition space was divided across several floors. I thought it was quite unusual. I used that as a storytelling structure [that further separated the floors], which is a quite simple idea, but I thought there was a way to break apart the concept using the architecture of the [Art House] itself.

Bansari: UNDER THE SUN brings together Western sensibilities and diverse Indian crafts. During your two-year collaboration with local artisans, how did your own understanding of materiality transform?

Doug: It was a rare opportunity for me to step into a different culture and craft traditions. We had an idea to do the collaboration, but we didn’t know how. [The most time-consuming part of crafting the exhibits was to learn how these collaborations would work] to create contemporary art that resonates with people. The entire exhibition is a hybrid of mediums, of how old artisanship can be implicit in telling a contemporary story.

Bansari: Your work moves fluidly between sculpture, film, architecture and sound. When you begin a project, do you think in terms of medium, or do you begin with a feeling or question that later finds its form?

Doug: I usually start with a question, an idea and an impulse. That impulse leads to the question of a medium and how things will perform. But I do not have a fixed path. Each project is different; some are singular, some are very minimal and some are quite process-driven, which might take years.

Bansari: How do you sustain curiosity across decades of making, and what questions continue to challenge or surprise you as an artist?

Doug: Artmaking is much more like a process, like a road that you are on and seeking completion. You can find new light along the way continuously.

‘UNDER THE SUN’ is running from December 6, 2025 – February 22, 2026, at the NMACC, Mumbai, India.