India’s art world is stepping out of the West’s shadow, asserting its own centre of gravity through fashion, design and contemporary art. From Art Basel to Paris couture, Indian voices now lead global conversations. Kolkata’s Experimenter Curators’ Hub embodies this shift, nurturing South-South alliances and curatorial dialogue that challenge Western hegemony and reframe how future museums and exhibitions are imagined.
When Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène was asked if his films were understood in Europe, he boldly declared: “Europe is not my centre. It is on the outskirts.” This momentous declaration has come to be rather representative of the current art scene in the Global South, especially India.
While for decades, success in the art world was measured by a Western nod, entailing recognition from New York, London or Paris as the ultimate validation, artists of the Global South have exceedingly shifted that equation. Across fashion, design and contemporary art, India is no longer expectant of approval from the established cultural capital; it is turning into a repository of original ideas and identity that is reshaping the conversation itself.
Whether you take the strong presence of Indian galleries and artists at the recently concluded Art Basel Switzerland, or the international response to Manish Malhotra's Paris Haute Couture debut, where commentators observed that India did not simply participate but led the dialogue, the country's creative industries are increasingly asserting themselves in the most confident manner.
Their success lies not in passive miming and imitation of Western aesthetics, but in presenting distinctly Indian perspectives that resonate globally.
Behind this growing presence, however, is an ecosystem that extends well beyond artists and galleries. Institutions, curators and platforms that nurture intellectual exchange and engagement are the lustre behind the confidence.
Among the many, one such institution is Kolkata's Experimenter. The contemporary art gallery holds its Experimenter Curators' Hub annually, which returns for its fifteenth edition this year, bringing together nine leading curators from India and around the world to discuss exhibition-making, institutional practice and the future of contemporary art across diverse geographies. It is one of the few forums in India where discourses shaping tomorrow’s museums and art spaces come into being long before they see the light of day in their final form.
Starting on July 17, the Experimenter Curators' Hub is not simply an industry gathering but rather a meeting place of some of the top curators and artists in the world with one agenda: curation as a collective practice shaped through dialogue, exchange, and shared inquiry.
Asked if the country has truly moved from being a participant to becoming a place where new ideas about exhibition-making are actually being shaped, Prateek and Priyanka Raja, co-founders of Experimenter, proclaim that “Western hegemony that has ailed global narratives for decades has truly been shattered, and histories are being revisited as well as questioned from the broader global majority's perspective rather than seen through the tunnel vision of Western art history.”
With years of being at the forefront of the art world, the Experimenter founders note that much has changed in the past 15 years with the conversations around the Global South maturing and coming to be a regular part of the curatorial enquiries.
“South-South alliances have also significantly strengthened over time,” and as a result, “India’s position in this narrative has also been central, since post-colonial discussions have revolved around India and its immediate neighbours.”
Towards this end, it is no secret to anyone how ‘fantastic new exhibitions are being made where the Indian perspective is very much central.’ Increasingly, “Indian artists are often subject to survey shows and retrospectives in Western institutions like MoMA New York and Tate London, and there is a genuine interest in them from critics, collectors, other institutions and curators. Important exhibitions, such as the Venice Biennale and Documenta, increasingly have Indian artists represented.”
The orchestrator of some of the major exhibitions, shows and biennales, for the Rajas of Experimenter, the Hub's role has never been simply to convene influential names. Instead, it is chiefly about creating a conducive environment for conversations to unfold without the pressures of institutional agendas or market expectations.
“The Experimenter Curators’ Hub over the last 15 years has been a space for free and fearless conversation and a crucible for sharing ideas. It is a place for unbound discussion and a platform that is built on the pillars of care and generosity,” they say. ‘Ensconced in ideas of care and comradeship,’ the Hub foreground dialogue and shared enquiry in “a world where such spaces are swiftly shrinking.”
That emphasis on dialogue also explains why this year's edition fosters curating as a collective practice. In an art world that has often celebrated the singular vision of the artist—or, increasingly, the celebrity curator—the founders argue that exhibitions are never the work of one individual.
"Although curating may seem like a solo act, it really is far from a singular activity," they explain. "It is the coming together of several forces, many of which are built from inside the community rather than borrowed from the outside. Relationships between artists and curators, many of which are durational in nature, are collective; the relationship between institutions and their publics defines their true remit in their community and is at the core of institutional work."
The curator, then, is no longer merely an organiser of exhibitions but a mediator between artists, institutions and audiences. As museums continue to influence collecting trends and as biennales shape the international reputations of artists, the role has expanded far beyond the gallery walls.
"The role of a curator is one that holds immense responsibilities and yet is equally nuanced and sensitive," say the Rajas. "They become important voices of our times as they hold the ability to show us the world in a way we may have never imagined. It involves as much academic enquiry as it demands aesthetic juxtapositions."
That influence, however, is rooted less in authority than in stewardship. "The word 'curate' comes from the Latin word curae, which means 'to care for'," they point out. "Through their work, spoken and written words and their exhibitions, they have the responsibility to uphold something equally important and fragile—the voice of the artist and the contemporaneous moment—and they have to hold that feeling up to the world to see and remember."
Looking ahead, the founders are less interested in establishing another international art destination than in preserving a rare kind of intellectual commons. "It is neither simply a convening of curators nor merely about art discourse," they say.
Their ambition for the next decade reflects the same philosophy. "We would love to see the Hub continue to be a space for pause and reflection, where vulnerabilities can be shared and new vocabularies of the future can be built.” They hope that platforms such as Experimenter Curators' Hub would “entrench themselves within the structures of the contemporary art world and provide that opportunity to build new and ambitious thinking and imagine future possibilities.”
(Experimenter Curators' Hub 2026 takes place on July 17–18 at Experimenter, Hindustan Road, Kolkata, bringing together nine leading curators from India and around the world to discuss exhibition-making, institutional practice and contemporary curatorial discourse. This year's participants include Arnika Ahldag, Gabi Ngcobo, Gridthiya Gaweewong, Nikhil Chopra, Sabih Ahmed, Sepake Angiama, Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, Tarini Malik and Zoe Butt, with sessions co-convened and moderated by art historian Rattanamol Singh Johal.)