Movable makers

By Jonathan Openshaw 22 : 02 : 2016 Responsive Museums : Design Museum Dharavi : Mumbai

Mumbai – A new design museum that harnesses the creativity of informal communities in India is a showcase for a new consumer mindset.

The Design Museum Dharavi is a mobile cultural initiative that reflects the borderless lifestyle of its featured designers
By 2030, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, some 2bn people could live in informal communities, creating an increasingly influential consumer group

At its best, contemporary culture acts as a looking glass for our society. It takes underlying social trends and projects them back to us: crystalised and writ large. There have been a spate of mobile and adaptable cultural projects in recent months, inlcuding The Moving Museum from Aya Mousawi and Simon Sakhai, or Station to Station: A 30-day Happening from Doug Aitken – reflecting a newly global, restless and peripatetic consumer mindset.

Another recent example comes from the Design Museum Dharavi, which harnesses the creative skills of the 1m-strong residents of this Mumbai district. The area is home to more than 20,000 micro-factories, and the museum will highlight the skills housed in this community of informal dwellings, from ceramics to leather goods and laser-cutting. The museum will move every week for two months, reflecting the flexible and nomadic lifestyle of the designers involved.