Indian photographer Dayanita Singh (b. 1961 in New Delhi, India) studied visual communication at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad and documentary photography at the International Center of Photography. She is known for her black-and-white portraits of India’s urban middle and upper classes, her photographs creating archives and spaces where people and architectures of different backgrounds and geographies interact. In her work, photography is only the raw material that Singh uses for her idea of “mobile museums” and book objects: she has developed a form that is simultaneously a book, a catalog and an exhibition in itself. By building mobile structures out of teak, her images are rearranged, recombined and spatially re-experienced – thus her photography begins and ends with the physical experience.

In this way, Singh shows how we can imagine dynamic, mobile and accessible museums and exhibitions.

As a contribution to “printing futures”, Dayanita Singh will transform her space at the Kunsthaus into a performance of her publication “Book Building” and all the concepts it contains. Part of her work will be to present this book to visitors and show them how they can transform their books into exhibitions. In parallel, she will work on three new books: “Museum of Tanpura”, “Museum of Dance” and “Pothi Khana”.