ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the overall context in which this ethnographic research on the travelling exhibition Indian Highway is situated – the Mobile Spaces of Encounter. This addresses the symbolic dimension of mobility and knowledge production in the global field of contemporary art that spans cultures and regions of Europe, India and China. The subchapter “Indian Highway – a transcultural fabric” describes the project of the travelling exhibition Indian Highway; its curators, artists, and the tour to the different venues in Europe and China; its special curatorial features of an organic exhibition; and the changing “show within the show” curated by artist curators. The following provides insights into the relation between travelling and the notion of Indian and the Indianness of contemporary art unfolding and how social networking and the circulation of contemporary Indian art, accompanied by flows of people, ideologies, and discourses, support generating creative cities in India with their local art institutions and private and public art initiatives in Delhi and other cities, but also in which sense hosting the exhibition allowed European cities to establish as creative cities. The chapter concludes with an overview of the upcoming chapters.
