CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF ART DECO, SMITI KANODIA PLANS A CROSS-CULTURAL FESTIVAL THAT HIGHLIGHTS MUMBAI AND MIAMI'S SHARED LEGACY.

Mumbai and Miami are kindred spirits—tropical cities boasting a vast coast-line, a continuously evolving skyline and a shared architectural heritage in art deco.

- TEXT: SHAIKH AYAZ

After Miami, our very own Maximum City is home to the largest number of art deco buildings in the world. While a cluster of these iconic buildings famously dot Marine Drive's promenade and the Oval Maidan vicinity, adding to old Bombay's romantic allure, the presence of over 800 well-preserved deco gems in its historic district have earned Miami the nickname Pastel Paradise.

A new multidisciplinary festival is all set to commemorate this unique connection through a series of deco-inspired multi-media exhibitions, symposiums, guided architectural tours, fusion dance and music shows, and some community engagement programmes. Marking the 100th year of Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, the exhibition in post-war Paris which gave rise to art deco, Art Deco Alive! is slated to take place in Miami and Mumbai in October and November 2025, respectively. “The idea is to create a meaningful dialogue between Mumbai and Miami, which embraced art deco as a modern, aspirational style in the early 20th century,” explains Smiti Kanodia, founder and the curatorial director of the festival's Mumbai chapter.