These people produce astounding creative visual art works that are as functional as they are sacred and quite different from the standard renowned works from the Indian art scene. For the very first time in France, the musée du quai Branly showcases the most representative material, day-to-day, artistic and religious productions of these Indian populations in a thematic and multidisciplinary approach thereby allowing the public to discover an important but still highly unrecognized part of India's contemporary popular art scene.

Spread over the entire territory and identified in the 1950 census, these populations keep up their artistic traditions while being in constant contact with the dominant Indian population. Equally well-known for living traditions such as dance, music and theatre that developed at the fringes of the huge Hindu communities, they still remain barely known to the Western world. For a long time, the representations of the Adivasis were considered with a prejudiced eye, as much by Indians as by foreigners. The exhibition thus reveals their true appearance, and showcases their amazing artistic productions.

Photographs, wall paintings of the Rathava tribe from Gujarat, tribal bronze figurines from Orissa and Chattisgarh, sculptures from North-Eastern India, wooden sculptures from Karnataka and from Bihar and architectural bas-reliefs crafted by the women artists from Chattisgarh will be exhibited.

The exhibition culminates with the monographs of world renowned contemporary artists, who are present at the highest rungs of the international art market: the painters Jivya Soma Mashe and Jangarh Singh Shyam, who chose to widen the field of their expression in order to depict their contemporary cultural situation in their works.

The showcased objects are assembled from the musée du quai Branly's collections and are completed by works from European and Indian museums as well as specific commissions from Indian artists. The exhibition bears testimony to the vibrancy of these different communities' artistic traditions and to their evolution and their exposure to the outside world.