Doug Aitken on His First Exhibition in India, and Why Art Should Feel Like a Living Landscape
In conversation with Robb Report India, American artist Doug Aitken reflects on creating his debut India exhibition for the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, the meeting point of craft and technology, and his belief that art is a landscape that keeps shifting.
Dec 6, 2025
Los Angeles-based artist Doug Aitken has spent three decades reshaping how we experience light, sound, and space through mirrored pavilions, architectural interventions, and immersive films shown at major museums worldwide. This winter, he brings Under the Sun to Mumbai, his first exhibition in India, unfolding across three floors at NMACC Art House from December 6, 2025, to February 22, 2026.
The show moves from hand-carved indigenous woods and embroidered river tapestries made with Indian artisans on the first floor, through a mirrored film environment on the second, to a seven-metre light sculpture that pulses like a breathing organism on the third. In an exclusive conversation with Robb Report India, Aitken discusses creating work specifically for Mumbai, redefining luxury in art, and why he sees exhibitions as landscapes rather than destinations.
Robb Report India (RR): How do you see modern technology and traditionalism meeting within Under the Sun?
Doug Aitken (DA): The exhibition is built around that meeting point. You begin with wood, earth, stone, and woven materials that feel very close to the hand. The experience then shifts, and shifts again. I wanted the viewer to feel as if they were walking through a landscape that keeps unfolding. The natural and the digital are not opposites for me. They are different layers of a story that spans centuries and looks ahead at the same time.
RR: You often speak about art as an agent of transformation. What kind of transformation do you hope viewers experience here?
DA: I am not interested in dictating what someone should feel. I am more interested in giving the viewer the freedom to build their own narrative. If someone walks out with a question that lingers or a feeling they did not expect, that is enough. The exhibition is not there to be solved. It is there to be moved through.
RR: The structure of past, present, and future reveals itself floor by floor. How did that idea emerge?
DA: When I visited the Art House for the first time, I saw three clear levels. You cannot see the entire building in a single glance. It reveals itself gradually, almost like turning pages. That made me think of time. I liked the idea of letting the visitor move upward through it, discovering something new on each level. The building shaped the rhythm of the work.
RR: Mumbai is constantly changing, with an energy that contrasts sharply with the elemental themes in the show. How did the city influence you?
DA: We began working on this exhibition several years ago, and the first time I arrived, the foundation was still bare. That kind of environment comes with a sense of responsibility. I wanted the work to feel as though it belonged here. I did not want it to feel portable or anonymous. I wanted it to be in dialogue with Mumbai, with its speed, its intensity, its questions, and its openness. I wanted the exhibition to feel alive, like a river of experiences rather than a static presentation.
RR: How do you interpret luxury in the world of contemporary art?
DA: I have never related to luxury in the traditional sense. For me, luxury is a moment of revelation. It is a conversation that changes direction. It is something internal, something that shifts the way you see. I am drawn to art that is fluid and unfixed. Something that refuses to settle into a single form. I think that reflects the way we live now far more accurately than an object that stays still.
RR: The relationship between institutions, wealth, and art is often debated. How do you see it today?
DA: Luxury is usually associated with preservation and status, but I think we can reconsider that. Institutions have the power to create access to experiences that are not about ownership. They can broaden the meaning of value. The richness, in my view, comes from perception. It comes from the internal shift that a work of art creates in someone.
Under the Sun opens to the public on December 6, 2025, and remains on view until February 22, 2026, at the NMACC Art House. Entry is complimentary for senior citizens, children under seven, and students of fine arts and media. Visitors can also experience Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room through a combined ticket.