The City as a Museum, Kolkata, Edition 5

December 01, 2025

DAG’s annual festival celebrates its fifth year, as we revisit the city’s iconic landmarks through alternative perspectives that explore how creative and contested usage over time has shaped their present identity, through sensory walks, performances, itinerant artists’ installations, and more. Take a look at some of the upcoming programmes in this sneak preview.

In Kolkata, the festival will travel across the city to eight sites between December 6 to December 15, 2025, revisiting the city's iconic landmarks, drawing on research from eminent scholars such as Tapati Guha Thakurta, Aishika Chakraborty, Kaustubh Mani Sengupta, Saptarshi Sanyal and others, and featuring performances by Rivu, Avik Ghosh and the Arko Mukhaerjee Quartet. 

Unidentified Artist(s)

Untitled

Collection: DAG

Radha Charan Bagchi

Kalighat Market

1937, Lithograph on paper 9.2 x 11.7 in.

Collection: DAG

'Don't Sit Idol'

Starting with a conversation which will take place at the Alipore Museum between Patachitra artist Bhaskar Chitrakar and architectural historian Mainak Ghosh, against the backdrop of DAG’s exhibition The Babu and the Bazaar, the programme will delve into the artistic lineages and changing cultural landscapes of Kalighat. Their exchange will be followed by an immersive walk through Patuapara, where they will trace how the migration of the Kalighat Pat Bazaar has reshaped the neighbourhood’s urban fabric, community rhythms, and long-standing craft traditions.

Ramendranath Chakravorty

Nakhoda Mosque

1934, Etching and dry point , 10.0 x 7.0 in.

Collection: DAG

Nakhoda Mosque, Kolkata

Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Sensing the City

A participatory, sensorial walk through the neighbourhood surrounding the Nakhoda Masjid in Kolkata’s iconic Chitpur neighbourhood, the programme will invite participants to engage deeply with its vibrant streetscape. Guided by urban historian Epsita Halder, the walk will explore layered traces of memory, patterns of migration, and the weaving of multi-cultural life-stories that lie embedded within the area’s built environment, revealing how architecture and lived experiences shape one another.

Satish Sinha

A Refugee Camp in South Calcutta

1946, Ink on paper laid on box board 10.5 x 15.0 in.

Collection: DAG

Prokash Karmakar

Untitled

1999, Oil on canvas, 29.7 x 35.7 in.

Collection: DAG

On the Waiting List

A reflective exploration around Sealdah Station will invite participants to unpack the layered ‘politics of waiting’ embedded in this bustling transit hub. The walk will be followed by a conversation with historian Anwesha Sengupta, who will illuminate the complex struggles faced by migrants after the Partition and discuss Sealdah’s enduring role as a critical site of refuge and precarious hope.

Jan van Ryne

Fort William in the Kingdom of Bengal. Belonging to the East India Company of England

1754, Engraving, tinted with watercolour on paper, 10.0 x 15.5 in.

Collection: DAG

William Baillie

A view of Fort William, Calcutta

late 18th Century, Watercolour on watermarked paper 14.7 x 21.2 in.

Collection: DAG

By the Bastions

A boat ride along the river Hooghly will offer participants an opportunity to engage with historian Kaustubh Mani Sengupta as he explains how the construction of the New Fort William dramatically reshaped Kolkata’s riverfront, especially through the experiences of migrant and maritime workers. The journey will conclude with a performance by Arko and Friends, showcasing musical traditions rooted in labour, displacement, and wider colonial networks.

Ramendranath Chakravorty

A Street Scene Calcutta

1941, Etching on paper, 9.0 x 10.7 in.

Collection: DAG

Shyambazar

Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

The City Takes Shape

From the Fort William, the festival will move towards Shyambazar for a participatory mapping session that traces the emergence of Calcutta’s roads, alleys, and paras (neighbourhoods). This event is intended to juxtapose official urban planning with residents’ lived experiences. Beginning at the iconic Shyambazar More, participants will journey through layered city histories alongside geographer Keya Dasgupta and historian Partho Datta, uncovering how everyday movement, memory, and spatial practices shape Kolkata’s evolving urban fabric today and beyond.

Bijan Choudhary

Protest in front of the Ochterlony Monument / Shaheed Minar

1960, Watercolour and charcoal on paper, 10.0 x 15.0 in.

Collection: DAG

Nemai Ghosh

Cinema's Ray

1971, 2012, Inkjet print on archival paper, 16.0 x 24.0 in.

Collection: DAG

The 'Metro' Pattern

The City as a Museum bus will then stop at Esplanade, for a guided walk of the neighbourhood’s cinema-viewing cultures by exploring its iconic Art Deco theatres and their social worlds, led by filmmaker and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute faculty Suman Majumder. The walk concludes at the historic Metro Cinema with a conversation featuring fashion historian Debasree Sarkar on how the influential ‘Metro pattern’ shaped the city’s visual and cultural imagination.

Gaganendranath Tagore

Untitled

Collection: DAG

All that Glitters

Following our walk around the old Esplanade, we will reach the Bengal Club further up the road, for an evening delving into Calcutta’s vibrant nightlife from the 1940s to the 1970s. This event will trace the aspirations and struggles of performers adapting to a rapidly shifting socio-political landscape with professor Aishika Chakraborty. It will followed by a dramatic reading by Ruchir Joshi from his new novel, set amid Second World War Calcutta and the storied Great Eastern Hotel, a work that blends history, intrigue, and atmospheric detail, accompanied with music by Rivu.

Atul Bose

Victoria Memorial, Calcutta

1923, Oil on cardboard , 15.5 x 24.5 in.

Collection: DAG

For the Marbles of the Past

And finally, we will reach the Victoria Memorial Hall, to present an immersive walk through of the iconic monument with historians Giles Tillotson and Tapati Guha-Thakurta. Together they will guide participants through the building’s grand architectural design and its diverse collection of statues, revealing the layered histories of colonial power embedded in its form. The walk will also reflect on the site’s evolving postcolonial identity, exploring how these inherited symbols are reinterpreted in contemporary Kolkata.

On our journeys this year, we will be accompanied by the iconic blue-yellow Kolkata bus, which will be transformed into a mobile installation. This project reimagines the city’s familiar landmarks by animating lesser-known histories and gently satirising everyday urban experiences. As the bus travels through Kolkata, passengers encounter a dynamic multi-channel video installation by Pavel Paul that layers memory, humour, and critique, alongside striking drawings and posters by Sumantra Mukherjee that further refract the city’s textures, contradictions, and lived stories. We hope to see you hopping on it soon!