Emami Art will participate in a major international exhibition, The World in a Single Nest: Following the Way of Tagore, opening on 25 June 2026 at the GES-2 House of Culture in Moscow. Running until 23 August, the exhibition brings together works by Rabindranath Tagore alongside contemporary artists from India and Russia, marking a rare and historically resonant presentation of Tagore’s art in Russia for the first time since his visit to the country in 1930.
Curated by Artem Timonov and Elena Yaichnikova, the exhibition draws on Tagore’s enduring philosophy of internationalism, holistic education, and the deep interconnection between nature and human creativity. It foregrounds Visva-Bharati University, which was founded by Tagore in Santiniketan in 1921 as a living pedagogical and artistic model that continues to shape contemporary practices.
Emami Art’s contribution features artists Prasanta Sahu and Ruma Choudhury, both based in Santiniketan and deeply rooted in its artistic lineage. Their inclusion situates the Santiniketan tradition not as a historical reference but as an active, evolving framework. Sahu’s practice investigates systems of inherited knowledge, documenting agricultural and craft-based traditions through drawings, plaster casts, and archival methods. His works often reconstruct lived experiences, such as his grandfather’s techniques of spinning jute or the cyclical labour of farmers and highlighting forms of knowledge under ecological and economic threat.
Choudhury, on the other hand, engages directly with material processes, creating handmade paper from organic matter such as bark, fibres, and soil. Her works are shaped by environmental forces like sunlight, rain, and wind, transforming each piece into an ecological record that captures duration rather than a single moment. Her approach reflects Tagore’s emphasis on learning through direct engagement with the natural world, where material and meaning are inseparable.
The exhibition will present over fifty works by Tagore, including archival materials from his 1930 Moscow visit, alongside contributions by artists such as Abhishek Chakraborty, Samit Das, Sanchayan Ghosh, Raqs Media Collective, The Otolith Group, and Russian artists including Ivan Novikov and Ulyana Podkorytova.
Organised in collaboration with institutions including Visva-Bharati’s Rabindra Bhavana Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, and Shrine Empire Gallery, the exhibition is supported by cultural bodies from both India and Russia, reflecting a renewed emphasis on cross-cultural dialogue.
Speaking on the occasion, Richa Agarwal, CEO of Emami Art, described the exhibition as a “deeply meaningful moment,” emphasising the continued relevance of Tagore’s ideas in shaping contemporary artistic and institutional practices. Ushmita Sahu, Director and Head Curator at Emami Art, noted that the participating artists do not illustrate Tagore’s philosophy but embody its principles through their engagement with material, memory, and lived experience.
At a time of renewed geopolitical and cultural negotiations, The World in a Single Nest positions Tagore’s vision of rooted internationalism as a critical framework for artistic exchange—one grounded not in abstraction, but in the specificity of place, practice, and shared human inquiry.
Cover image: Artwork by Ruma Chowdhury
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