A one-of-its-kind travelling exhibition that celebrated Indo-French collaboration, the project combined art, architecture, experience design and urbanism. The 9 meter high, 800 square metres and 40 tonne installation travelled approximately 3500 kilometres from the iconic India Gate in Delhi to Cross Maidan Garden behind the historic Churchgate Station in Mumbai to become the star attraction of the world’s largest book fair in Kolkata welcoming more than 180,000 people over the 30days across the three cities.

Global Architecture & Design Awards 2018
First Award | Pop-Ups and Temporary Structure (Built)

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The ‘Bonjour India Experience’ was travelling urban installation and exhibition, undertaken as a flagship initiative of ‘Bonjour India 2017-2018’, an Indo-French festival that brought together 300 events spread over four months across 33 Indian cities.

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The design of this exhibition had to balance the functional demands of a travelling pavilion with the stringent requirements of a sealed exhibition space that comfortable housed many visitors and high tech audio visual equipment. Located in iconic public spaces including the India Gate, Cross Maidan etc the large and complex super structure had to be designed to be installed and dismantled in record time without the use of heavy machinery.

©SpaceMatters

The curation and communication design had to balance diverse examples of Indo French collaboration from cinema and fashion to aviation and space technology while being accessible and interesting to an equally diverse audience – varying in age, linguistic preferences, educational background, and ranging from informed Francophiles to curious passer-by.