The Missing Pavilion, a show curated by students of JNU. The collection brought together works of young and proficient artists Gauri Gill, Prajakta Potnis and several others. The constant absence of an Indian pavilion at the Venice Biennale instigated the theme: the artists drew from feelings of loss and frustration and their desire to be a part of the Venice Biennale to project our identity in the worldview and to represent India.

The initial attempt was to identify the ‘i’ with India and make India disappear from the pavilion visually. There was always this contradiction – how to put something there and make it go away.

The interesting bit of this design solution is that people read “Missing Pavilion” in the identity. They did not realize anything was missing. It was something hidden and not obvious. It was very much about the presence of absence just as at the Biennale, where people did not realize that India was not there until someone pointed it out. The logotype of the final identity expresses that as well. It was a nice play of ideas that really got to the crux of the matter.

The design of the poster evolved from the identity, wiping out a large portion of the typographical landscape, to make a bold statement aligning with the artists’ point of view. The solution was to amplify absence by the elements around it.

Client: Students of the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU
Firm: Lopez Design