Posted on 8 August 2026:

Where the Body Begins: Vida Heydari Contemporary Unveils a Three-Part Ode to Memory, Nature and the Human Form

Today, 8 August 2026, Vida Heydari Contemporary, Pune,  opens Where the Body Begins, a single exhibition unfolding across three months and three interconnected chapters. 

Bringing together 46 artists born in or based in Pune, the show poses a question rather than an answer: where does the body begin —With the physical self, the landscape it inhabits, the histories it carries, or the forces that move through it? 

“Across the three exhibitions, the body is understood as more than anatomy: it is shaped by memory, place, weather, inheritance, touch, labour, material, desire, vulnerability, and other forms of life,” says the curator Vida Heydari

“The sequence follows an internal logic: from what is carried and remembered, to what acts upon and through us, to the body as the place where these forces become lived and felt. Each exhibition has its own atmosphere and set of concerns; together they form one continuous curatorial statement,” she added.

The journey opens with Memory (8 August – 12 September : 7:00 – 9:00 PM), tracing what remains within objects, architecture, language and ritual — memory not as fixed recollection, but as something that fades, fractures, and reassembles across generations and the everyday life of a city. 

It moves into Nature (19 September – 17 October : 7:00 – 9:00 PM ), where the natural world becomes an active force rather than scenery — land, growth and decay mirroring the body’s own structures, unstable and continually reshaping. 

The trilogy closes with Body (24 October – 21 November : 7:00 – 9:00 PM), where anatomy dissolves into something more permeable — sensation, gesture, labour and inheritance made visible through surface, repetition, and fragmentation.

Memory (8 August – 12 September 2026)

The first chapter, Memory, opens tonight. It explores what lingers in places, objects, gestures, and inherited forms. Memory here is fluid—fading, repeating, fracturing, and resurfacing as traces, absences, or digital residues. The works move between intimate recollections and collective cultural memory, asking how the past continues to act upon the present even when its original form has dissolved.

Artists: Abhishek Pandey, Aparajita JM, Charudatt Pande, Harshada Arvind Kolapkar, Kisalay Vora, Monali Meher, Nandakumar P K, Narendra Dengle, Parth Palsay, Ruby Ram, Ruddhi Vichare, Sameer Gorde, Shilpa Bawane, Uday Banerjee, Vaishnavi Walvekar, Yash Raj. 

Nature (19 September – 17 October 2026)

The second chapter, Nature, considers the natural world not as backdrop but as force—unstable, generative, and inseparable from human life. Artists engage with land, atmosphere, flora, and ecological transformation, revealing how structures in plants, cells, and landscapes mirror those within the body. Nature is presented as vulnerable yet continually shaping and being shaped by us.

Artists: Deepashri Dixit, Meera George, Michelle Boyle, Priyanka Bardiya, Puneeta Ranjan, Rachana Bajaj, Saloni Lodha, Saurabh Talekar, Shamira Dharap, Shubhankar Chandere, Smita Kinkale, Snehal Kulkarni, Sujyot Parkhe, Veena Chandran. 

Body (24 October – 21 November 2026)

The final chapter, Body, turns inward. It understands the body not as a fixed image but as permeable, continually transformed by memory, sensation, desire, labour, and environment. Through anatomy, gesture, texture, and movement, the works reveal the body as lived space—fragile yet resilient, shaped by contact with natural systems and social structures.

Artists: Deepti Munot, Dhruti Mahajan, Gauri Gandhi, Gauri Kulkarni, Hansika Mangwani, Harshit Bondre, Ketaki Pimpalkhare, Manasa Priya Dhulipalla, Mandar Kadam, Mohammad Sadikot, Radhesham Dhamal, Rajita Schade, Smruti Joshi, Soham Joshi, Yash Shah, Yogesh Ramkrishna. 

Curated by renowned Vida Heydari, the exhibition resists a singular “Pune art scene,” instead holding space for distinct practices bound by shared ground and searching questions.

The city itself becomes more than setting — a quiet condition running beneath every work.

More than an exhibition, Where the Body Begins is a slow unfolding —how memory, land and self continuously shape one another.