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The story of the Didarganj Yakshi, a much-admired showstopper at the Bihar Museum, is fascinating. The sculpture carved out of polished chunar sandstone holding a flywhisk with beautifully detailed jewellery and drapery was discovered in 1917 on the banks of the Ganga in the Didarganj city of Bihar. One story goes that the villagers used its stone slab which stuck out of the muddy waters as a washing board. Another says they went searching for a snake but unearthed the sculpture instead. Leading a walkthrough at the second edition of the ongoing Bihar Museum Biennale in Patna, director-general Anjani Kumar Singh calls this beguiling mystery-in-stone the most important exhibit of the museum. A similarly decked out human counterpart and even bearing her signature flywhisk recounts the story of the Yakshi to onlookers who jostle to take pictures. Elsewhere, in the children’s gallery downstairs, a mother helps her seven-year-old child ‘match the jewellery’ against a digital image of the Yaskhi in an interactive game.
Estimated to be built at a cost of Rs 530 crore, the Bihar Museum was envisioned as a “world-class” space and seems to have lived up to that dream. At the opening of the Biennale, chief minister Nitish Kumar announced a 1.5km-long “heritage tunnel” to connect the older Patna Museum to Bihar Museum in three years. Even as Prof Yannick Lintz, president of Musee Guimet in Paris, discussed how museums can become vibrant repositories of “universal culture” rather than static spaces of antiquities at a symposium, people in Patna got a chance to see contemporary art from G20 countries apart from nine guest countries like Bangladesh and Egypt in a special multidisciplinary exhibition called ‘Together We Art’ curated by Alka Pande. Other exhibitions include a display of the meticulous techniques behind the making of traditional Tanjore paintings, apart from collaborations with Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad and a gallery of over 70 artworks encompassing Nepal’s syncretic spiritual landscape. The Bihar Museum Biennale runs till December.
“The next four and a half months will include all kinds of activities from quizzing and seminars to exhibitions and educational outreach initiatives. This will ensure the participation of people across age groups, professions and backgrounds,” says Singh. He also adds that there are two new museums coming up in Patna, a tech-focused homage to the life of Mahatma Gandhi called ‘Bapu Tower’ near Gait Public Library in Gardanibagh area and a modern science museum with a special focus on agriculture. “The biggest achievement of the Bihar Museum Biennale has been the many partnerships and collaborations we have forged. Our strong friendships with practitioners across folk and contemporary art, design, architecture, conservation and museum planning will see a bigger impact in the coming days,” says Singh, adding though there are several art biennales in the world, this museum biennale is the first of its kind. Vishesh Chitransh, doing his bachelors in computer science at BITS Pilani in Goa, loves hanging out in the museum when he comes back for holidays. “Their music gallery is a treasure trove. Some of the rarest folk songs and recordings of old bands from Patna have been digitised for people to listen with just a tap of a button. Old, unknown instruments hang from the ceiling. Their histories and back stories are explained. I get completely lost here,” says Chitransh. Bihar Museum Biennale is on till Dec 31
Estimated to be built at a cost of Rs 530 crore, the Bihar Museum was envisioned as a “world-class” space and seems to have lived up to that dream. At the opening of the Biennale, chief minister Nitish Kumar announced a 1.5km-long “heritage tunnel” to connect the older Patna Museum to Bihar Museum in three years. Even as Prof Yannick Lintz, president of Musee Guimet in Paris, discussed how museums can become vibrant repositories of “universal culture” rather than static spaces of antiquities at a symposium, people in Patna got a chance to see contemporary art from G20 countries apart from nine guest countries like Bangladesh and Egypt in a special multidisciplinary exhibition called ‘Together We Art’ curated by Alka Pande. Other exhibitions include a display of the meticulous techniques behind the making of traditional Tanjore paintings, apart from collaborations with Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad and a gallery of over 70 artworks encompassing Nepal’s syncretic spiritual landscape. The Bihar Museum Biennale runs till December.
“The next four and a half months will include all kinds of activities from quizzing and seminars to exhibitions and educational outreach initiatives. This will ensure the participation of people across age groups, professions and backgrounds,” says Singh. He also adds that there are two new museums coming up in Patna, a tech-focused homage to the life of Mahatma Gandhi called ‘Bapu Tower’ near Gait Public Library in Gardanibagh area and a modern science museum with a special focus on agriculture. “The biggest achievement of the Bihar Museum Biennale has been the many partnerships and collaborations we have forged. Our strong friendships with practitioners across folk and contemporary art, design, architecture, conservation and museum planning will see a bigger impact in the coming days,” says Singh, adding though there are several art biennales in the world, this museum biennale is the first of its kind. Vishesh Chitransh, doing his bachelors in computer science at BITS Pilani in Goa, loves hanging out in the museum when he comes back for holidays. “Their music gallery is a treasure trove. Some of the rarest folk songs and recordings of old bands from Patna have been digitised for people to listen with just a tap of a button. Old, unknown instruments hang from the ceiling. Their histories and back stories are explained. I get completely lost here,” says Chitransh. Bihar Museum Biennale is on till Dec 31
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