“Devi-Diva”, the new exhibition held at the Museum of Asian Arts, provides a platform to Indian cinema and its heroines. The seventh art is the most popular form of entertainment in India. It reflects the Indian society. From the goddess (Devi) to the heroine (Diva) there is but a small step. Initially focusing mainly on the submissive woman, today, new idols— independent, androgynous, feminist—are emerging in a society still fixed by machismo. Although distant, India is in this respect very close to the West. The struggles of its women are the struggles of our own.
At the origin of this exhibition, there is a woman of many faces. Bérénice Ellena, an Indianist, writer, and film enthusiast, suggested highlighting women through the characters they portray in Indian cinema. This project received support from the General Council of Alpes-Maritimes. The resonance of the Cannes International Film Festival and the Victorine studios have placed our department at the heart of cinematic art. Through Devi – Diva, Nice begins an ambitious project to reclaim its place as a land welcoming cultural initiatives.
Beyond certain clichés, Bollywood, the world’s largest film industry after Hollywood, offers a real reflection on Indian society.
In recent years, Indian production has received international recognition, notably with the success of Lagaan and Devdas in 2000. It draws its inspiration from Indian mythology, which places women on a pedestal in sometimes incongruous and very opposing forms: pure and inaccessible, all-powerful and compassionate, divine and carnal, submissive and rebellious. This is the whole paradox of Indian society. While it venerates a woman as mother, a model wife, a submissive lover, it also pays tribute to an autonomous and rebellious woman. The exhibition showcases this through statues, cinematic productions projected on giant screens, photographs, posters. Also on the program are sari parades, tea ceremonies, conferences… And women in black and white and in color, joyful and sad, loving and hateful, dominating and dominated, modest and wanton. They strikingly resemble Western women, enduring the same injustices: domestic violence, sexual assaults, workplace inequality… Finally, the exhibition features the independent and rebellious woman, in the image of the very popular Preity Zinta, androgynous yet sexy, good friend yet knowledgeable mistress, businesswoman yet good cook. One more reason to rush to the Asian Arts Museum, transformed into a temple of womanhood for the duration of an exhibition.
“Devi-Diva, the 7 veils of Bollywood
The woman through Indian cinema”
Exhibition from July 6 to December 31, 2006
Museum of Asian Arts
405, Promenade des Anglais
06200 Nice
Phone: 04 92 29 37 00
[www.arts-asiatiques.com](https://www.arts-asiatiques.com)
