Matthieu Foss came to Mumbai in 2005, where he supports and organizes exhibitions for Indian and foreign photographers. We spoke with him about the Focus Festival, the first of its kind in Mumbai, and his views on the Indian art and photography market.
How has the photo market changed in Mumbai since your arrival in 2005?
The photo market in India is inseparable from the contemporary art market, which was booming until 2008. Young Indians who wanted to start collecting art turned to photo. In Mumbai, there’s a community interested in purchasing work. Foreigners also played a part in the development of this market. Since 2005, many exhibitions in Europe and the United States have drawn attention to India, which attracted international buyers.
Can you tell us about the Focus Festival held recently in Mumbai?
In the spirit of the Mois de la Photo in Paris, Elise Foster, Vander Elst, Nicola Antaki and I put together a two-week photo festival which took place last March. Twenty-seven exhibitions were held in galleries, museums and cultural centers and public spaces across the city, like the gardens in Horniman Circle.
The involvement of the galleries was a real success. For example, the modern and contemporary art gallery Chemould Prescott Road, which presented its first documentary photography exhibition with Sooni Taraporevala’s work on the Parsis. The high attendance and the way the photographers and the art world came together demonstrates the interest for photography in Mumbai and India today.
Read the full interview on the French version of Le Journal.
Interview by Sybile Girault
