MUMBAI.- Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai – …and for those who sing their national anthem in somebody else’s mother tongue. marks Vivek Vilasini's third solo exhibition at Sakshi Gallery. Opening on April 9, the exhibition will remain on view until May 7, 2026 at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai.

The show is conceived as a series of visual essays, with each work functioning as an independent yet interconnected inquiry. Resisting an overarching theme, the artworks allow viewers to access the show through multiple entry-points.

Vilasini's practice often moves between global and local frameworks, disrupting this division by transposing uniquely local references into larger socio-political and mythical contexts. His works have consistently engaged with migration, movement, and the frictions that emerge when cultural and ideological systems collide. One of the works addresses language, examining the chasms that emerge when languages encounter one another across regions and state boundaries, often shaped by dominant political and cultural agendas.

Stemming from the artist's long-standing engagement with questions of identity, culture and social structures, the works reflect Vilasini's sharp approach to contemporary realities. Positioning himself as both observer and interlocutor, Vilasini examines tensions between belonging and exclusion, uniformity and plurality, authority and resistance.

Vivek Vilasini (b. 1964) is an Indian contemporary artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, photography, painting, and mixed media. Trained initially as a Marine Radio Officer and later learning Political Science from Kerala University, Vilasini subsequently immersed himself in sculpture and traditional Indian craft practices, shaping a body of work that bridges classical material knowledge with critical contemporary inquiry. His work engages deeply with questions of identity, power, memory, and moral responsibility in contemporary society. Through conceptual exploration and a distinctive material language, Vilasini creates artistic interventions that reflect on identity, memory, and the ways personal and collective histories contribute to cultural narratives.

Vilasini has also spent signicant time in the United Arab Emirates, where he became part of a formative generation of artists who helped shape the country’s early contemporary art scene. During the 1990s he was connected to the avant-garde artistic circle that coalesced around the Emirati conceptual artist Hassan Sharif in Dubai, a group that experimented with new conceptual and material approaches outside mainstream art institutions. Portrait of a Nation II: Beyond Narratives and Proximities (2026) the recent exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) South Korea, these exhibitions positioned him among the artists who contributed to the development of the UAE’s visual arts landscape, acknowledging his role within the early international cohort that worked alongside Emirati practitioners and helped form one of the rst generations of contemporary artists active in the region.

Vilasini has exhibited extensively at major international platforms including Montevideo Biennale, Uruguay, Prague Biennale, Art Basel Hong Kong, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Sharjah Biennale, MAXXI Rome, MOCA Shanghai, and Seattle Art Museum. His works are held in prominent public and private collections such as the Smithsonian Museum, Arco Foundation, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Kadist Collection, Singapore Art Museum, and Kiran Nadar Museum. His practice continues to resonate globally for its intellectual rigor, material strength, and contemplative public presence.