The Museum Of Art and Photography (MAP), known as India‘s Silicon Valley, will open to the public on 18 February 2023.

Before the official opening, MAP has been documented with a set of photogrpahs captured by Iwan Baan, showing details and different vistas from the Bangalore streets.

The Museum of Art & Photography, housed in a state-of-the-art building in South India’s capital city, was designed by Bangalore-based architects Mathew & Ghosh Architects.

The museum is close to the 296-acre Cubbon Park and the UB City Mall, both visible from the upper levels, and according to the studio, “this created an opportunity to bridge the presence of the city and the forest / park from the museum.”

Street view

The building includes four large galleries, a café and a rooftop restaurant with sweeping views across the city, an auditorium, a library housing extensive research material on Indian art and culture, freely available to students and researchers, and a conservation laboratory to carry out research and care of the collection.

MAP has emerged as the brainchild of philanthropist and collector Abhishek Poddar, who also gifted the founding collection, and is led by its Director Kamini Sawhney.

Exterior view

MAP houses a collection of more than 60,000 works that ranges widely with a particular emphasis on the modern and contemporary, presenting paintings, sculptures and graphics, alongside textiles, tribal art and memorabilia of India’s world-famous Bollywood industry.

The collection deliberately blurs the boundaries between what is regarded as high art and the everyday creativity of the region’s communities.

“The photography collection is one of the most extensive in India with a particular focus on the period from the mid-nineteenth century, a turning point in the history of Britain’s colonial relationship with the region, right up to the present day,” stated in a press release.

Exterior view

The building is drawn on a rectangular-formed geometry, reaching at five levels. While the ground floor is opened up with transparency to accomodate public areas, its attached outdoor sculpture courtyard and the lobby opens these public spaces up.

At upper levels, the studio arranges lobbies to create the break between the galleries / auditorium, conservation laboratory, the library.

“This is one of the essential features for places for art to dilute museum fatigue intermittently,” the studio said.

Street view featuring wall mural by New York based artist/designer Marco Santini

The architects, specifically, aimed to isolate precious art works and artefacts to protect from the exposure to ultraviolet light which necessitated an opaque enclosure for the main galleries, along with required temperature and humidity control.

At lower levels, the team places entrance, interactive screens, experience centres, public outreach classroom, short term/ frequently changing display art gallery, museum shop and a cafe with an open to sky courtyard.

The first floor is partially dedicated to a curated screens gallery, a visual gallery /storage, and an 130-seat auditorium auditorium.