<Heiner Goebbels’ Landscape Plays faces an uphill battle to appeal to the public — Art News
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museum exhibitions calendar_today Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Heiner Goebbels’ Landscape Plays faces an uphill battle to appeal to the public

The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai is hosting the first solo exhibition in India of German composer Heiner Goebbels, titled 'Landscape Plays'. The exhibition, presented by the Goethe-Institut, features six slow-moving, non-narrative video installations that challenge traditional viewing habits with their meditative, plotless approach.

The show highlights a persistent tension in contemporary art: the difficulty of making avant-garde, conceptually demanding work accessible and engaging to a broad public audience. While the exhibition ambitiously bridges theatre and visual art within a historic museum setting, its deliberate pace and lack of conventional storytelling risk alienating visitors, raising questions about translation and audience engagement in a global art context.