Rethinking Decolonisation

In defiance of the Western gaze and the dominance of Euro-American institutions, the Bihar Museum Biennale creates space for museums of the Global South to lead the cultural conversation

- Divya Tiwari

As cultural institutions across the world confront legacies of colonialism, the idea of the Global South no longer exists as a mere geographical marker. An intellectual provocation, it is a call to reassess whose stories get told, by whom, and in what spaces. Museums, once seen as apolitical repositories of objects, are now active battlegrounds for questions of representation, restitution, and relevance.

Amid this global churn, the third edition of the Bihar Museum Biennale arrives in Patna with a clarity of purpose to create a platform where museums and cultural institutions from the Global South do not just participate, but lead the movement. Unlike most biennales that privilege artists or designers, the Bihar Museum Biennale is unique as it is the world's first biennale dedicated solely to museums.

"It is the world's first museum-focused biennale that represents a paradigmatic shift in contemporary museological practice. Unlike traditional art, design, and architecture biennales, it provides a dedicated platform specifically for museums to showcase their collections, methodologies, and institutional narratives," says Additional Director of Bihar Museum, Ashok Sinha.

In its 2025 edition, it decisively aligns itself with institutions and imaginaries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Scheduled for August 2025 in Patna, the Biennale's theme this year is 'Global South: Sharing Histories', signalling a deepening of its long-term vision. Rather than treat decolonisation as a buzzword, the Bihar Museum Biennale asks what happens when institutions from Asia, Africa, and Latin America speak to each other directly, unfettered by the frameworks and curatorial vocabularies of the West? How do shared histories of resistance, migration, and memory reshape the museum space? And perhaps, more importantly, what does it mean to build an intellectual common that centres and furthers South-South dialogue?