Where the Body Begins: Nature

Vida Heydari Contemporary is pleased to present Where the Body Begins, one exhibition unfolding in three parts from August to November 2026. Opening on 8 August and continuing through 21 November, it brings together 46 artists in three connected exhibitions: Memory, Nature, and Body.

The title is a question rather than a definition. Where does the body begin? With the physical self, the landscape it inhabits, the histories it carries, or the forces that move through it? Across the three exhibitions, the body is understood as more than anatomy: it is shaped by memory, place, weather, inheritance, touch, labour, material, desire, vulnerability, and other forms of life.

The sequence follows an internal logic: from what is carried and remembered, to what acts upon and through us, to the body as the place where these forces become lived and felt. Each exhibition has its own atmosphere and set of concerns; together they form one continuous curatorial statement.

All participating artists are Pune-born or Pune-based. The project considers the city as shared ground, a place shaped by different generations, histories, environments, and languages. Rather than defining a single Pune art scene, it brings distinct practices into proximity and asks what becomes visible when artists connected by place approach shared questions from different positions.

Where the Body Begins: Nature

Nature considers the natural world not as subject or scenery but as force: something that acts upon us, moves through us, and shapes how we experience time, place, and the body. The exhibition asks what it means to be within nature rather than to observe it from a distance.
The works engage with land, atmosphere, flora, growth, decay, and ecological transformation. Some begin with close observation; others move toward abstraction or interiority. Structures found in plants, cells, bodies, and landscapes often mirror one another. Nature is not presented as passive, pristine, or separate from human life. It is unstable, generative, vulnerable, and continually shaping and being shaped by the bodies and environments within it.