MoMA Roots for Mumbai

Mumbai’s charm lies in its chaos,a factor that has often led artists,both Indian as well as international,to treat it as their muse. The latest is a 14-month project by Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),New York,that will examine new architectural possibilities in the city. The project,titled “Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities”,has been organised by Pedro Gadanho,Curator,Department of Architecture and Design,MoMA,in collaboration with Museum of Applied Arts (MAK),Vienna. It features Mumbai alongside New York,Rio de Janerio,Lagos,Hong Kong and Istanbul.

The advisory board for the project includes Nader Tehrani,Michael Sorkin and David Harvey,among others. The resulting proposals will be exhibited at MoMA from November 22,2014 to May 10,2015. “In 2030,the world’s population will be a staggering eight billion people. Of these,two-thirds will live in cities,and most will be poor and with limited resources. City authorities,urban planners and designers,and economists will need to work together to ensure that expanding megacities will be habitable. ‘Uneven Growth’ will enable MoMA to take a leadership role in addressing this challenge,” said Gadanho. The team that will develop a proposal for Mumbai includes Pop Lab from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),Boston,and URBZ,an experimental urban research and action collective. The latter has been working in Mumbai for several years now.