Bombay, Open City

BOMBAY FRAMED: People, Memory, Metropolis

edited by Gyan Prakash

Following the successful inaugural edition in Mumbai in 2025 exploring the world of the artists at and around the iconic Sir J. J. School of Art until the mid-twentieth century period last year, The City as Museum, Mumbai, Edition 2 examines how artistic collectives and community initiatives have navigated, and continue to transform, the city’s social and spatial imaginaries, by revisiting some of the most radical public art projects conducted in India’s maximum city.

While rooted in art, the book that accompanies this exhibition moves beyond it to explore the city’s many layers. The introductory essay by historian and volume editor Gyan Prakash positions Bombay as both subject and archive—a city whose meanings are continually written, erased and rewritten. From there, the essays move across the city’s many aspects: Devika Shankar and Preeti Chopra trace its origins and land reclamations; Murali Ranganath examines Parsi philanthropy and civic life; Simin Patel reflects on nineteenth-century hotel culture; Vanessa Caru and Nikhil Rao foreground labour and the working city; Pheroza Godrej writes on art and galleries as platforms for artistic ambition; and Debashree Mukherjee and Rachel Dwyer bring the perspectives of cinema. Prashant Kidambi considers architecture and monumentality in contrast to everyday street life, while Naresh Fernandes listens to the sounds and rhythms that animate the city. The volume closes with Mustansir Dalvi, who leads the reader on walk through memory and place.

DAG art and heritage festival brings ‘The City as a Museum’ to Mumbai

Lachmi Deb Roy writing in Firstpost.com