Dayanita Singh’s Museum Bhavam

A book, an exhibition, a photographic archive

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15756467

Abstract

Dayanita Singh’s portfolio questions the multimedia function of the photography museum. By gathering a collection of photographic works in the same “portable” display, the artist intends to show their significance as museum and archival pieces, able to construct a narrative that is both artistic and historical. In this context, photographs are not only works of art, but documents that bear witness to a story to be told and preserved, over and over again.

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Author Biographies

Annalisa Laganà, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Italy

Annalisa Laganà is a historian of modern and contemporary art. After earning a master’s degree in Philosophy of Language dedicated to the analysis of verbal signs in Magritte’s writings and paintings, she undertook historical-artistic studies. She, therefore, acquired a master’s degree and a postgraduate  diploma in History of modern and contemporary art. In December 2021, she gained a PhD in Art History at the Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici of the Università della Calabria (Italy) and the École normale supérieure of Paris, with a thesis entitled Le lettere d’artista. Vicende di un patrimonio nell’Italia dell’Ottocento. She currently teaches History of Modern and Contemporary Art for the course of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, DiBEST – Università della Calabria.
For nine years she has been a member of the Editorial and Review Staff of the academic journal RIFL (Aesthetics and Philosophy of Language). In 2017, she participated in the international research program Lettresart. Lettres d’artistes. Pour une nouvelle histoire transnationale de l’art (XVIIIe-XIXe siècles), at the École française de Rome. Since 2019, Annalisa is an ICOM member. She has significant experience in organizing and participating as a speaker at international academic conferences.

Dayanita Singh

Dayanita Singh’s art uses photography to reflect and expand on the ways in which we relate to photographic images. Her recent work, drawn from her extensive photographic oeuvre, is a series of mobile museums that allow her images to be endlessly edited, sequenced, archived and displayed. Stemming from Singh’s interest in the archive, the museums present her photographs as interconnected bodies of work that are replete with both poetic and narrative possibilities.

References

Asian Art Museum. “Myself Mona Ahmed.” Accessed on 5 Mary 2025. https://exhibitions. asianart.org/exhibitions/myself-mona-ahmed/.

Dayanita Sing. Accessed on 5 Mary 2025. https://dayanitasingh.net/.

DUGAL Simrat. File Room (2013), in Dayanita Singh, Book Building. Göttingen: Steidl, 2022, 42-49.

____. Sent a letter (2008), in Dayanita Singh, Book Building. Göttingen: Steidl, 2022, 78-83.

GROSSO, Inês, and BRAVO, Joana (eds.). Dayanita Singh. A aventura de uma fotógrafa. Porto: Fundação de Serralves, 2023.

HAECKEL, Jana Johanna. “Danser les yeux fermés. L’archive, le corps et le hasard dans le travail de Dayanita Singh”. Critique d’art, no. 61 (2023): 156-173.

June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation. “Foundation”. Accessed on 5 Mary 2025. https://www.leaffrankfoundation.org/about.

SINGH, Dayanita. Book Building. Göttingen: Steidl, 2022.

____. Museum Bhavan. Göttingen: Steidl, 2017.

____. Museum of Chance. Göttingen: Steidl, 2014.

____. File Room. Göttingen: Steidl, 2013.

____. Sent a letter. Göttingen: Steidl, 2008.

____. Myself Mona Ahmed. Scalo: Zurich – Berlin, 2001.

Steidl – YouTube Official Channel. “‘A book is a conversation with a stranger in the future’ | Dayanita Singh.” Accessed on 5 Mary 2025. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=xonYMhJspRg.

© Dayanita Singh

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Published

01.07.2025

How to Cite

Laganà, A., & Singh, D. (2025). Dayanita Singh’s Museum Bhavam: A book, an exhibition, a photographic archive. Archivo Papers, 5, 244–258. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15756467

Issue

Vol. 5 (2025): Archives and Contemporary Visual Art: Normalised Practices and Non-normative Historiographies

Section

Portfolios

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Annalisa Laganà, Dayanita Singh

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.