ADDA: The Third Space, a site-specific exhibition curated by St+art India Foundation with support from vision partner Asian Paints and CSR partner KCT Group CSR, is presented by TRI Art & Culture. This exhibition explores the porous boundaries between street and structure, movement and rest, and public and private, using the visual and sensory vocabularies of Kolkata’s street cultures to imagine new forms of urban belonging.

The exhibition featured installations by KHATRA, Howareyoufeeling.studio, Anikesa Dhing, Nabi, ZERO, Deep Adhikary, Dr. Ishita Dey, Sethu(ram)an, and Padmanabhan (beatnyk), ADDA: The Third Space uses the six senses—sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch, and proprioception—to create a triangulated and immersive interaction between the individual embodied experience, the interior spaces we live in, and the subcultures of the Indian street. ADDA: The Third Space, which was conceived as a collaborative investigation of hybridity and fluidity, turns TRI Art & Culture into a living sensorium where community, art, and urban rhythm converge to show the organization as a third space for connection and communion.

The exhibition, which takes its name from the Bengali term adda, which means a meeting spot or “nest” for discourse, highlights Kolkata’s long-standing customs of discussion and group introspection. Each installation builds on the concept of the third space as a point of encounter, where experience, expression, and connection combine to provide opportunities for meaning and belonging by incorporating street aesthetics into the TRI galleries and corridors.

When taken as a whole, these works provide a sensorium for the city, where art illuminates transitional areas because of their potential to create a sense of community and belonging. ADDA: The Third Space is a prime example of TRI Art & Culture’s dedication to promoting communication across artistic mediums, democratizing aesthetics, and converting cultural spaces into hubs for cooperation and collective introspection.

TRI Art & Culture seeks to democratize the arts, celebrate Kolkata’s cultural life, foster community through creativity, and develop the self through the senses by bringing the street into the galleries and the galleries to the street.

Priyanka Dutta