The Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, is pleased to present ‘Landscape Plays’. It is the first solo exhibition in India by the internationally acclaimed artist, composer, and theatre-maker, Heiner Goebbels. Known for his interdisciplinary practice, Goebbels has, over several decades, developed an oeuvre consisting of polyphonic compositions rendered in a distinctive artistic language.

The exhibition takes its title from a concept developed by the experimental American author Gertrude Stein (1874–1946), who proposed a form of theatre that moves away from the traditional narrative arc. Rather than telling a story with a clear beginning, middle and end, Stein imagined performances unfolding like landscapes—open, layered environments in which viewers are free to determine their own focal points. In this spirit, Goebbels’ works dissolve the boundaries between theatre and visual art, allowing visitors to encounter sound, light, objects and movement as equal protagonists within the space.

‘Landscape Plays’ is a carefully composed soundscape within the Museum’s exhibition space, with each room offering a distinct moving image and sonic focus. Yet no single element dominates; instead, ideas, objects, actions, and sounds are orchestrated in aesthetic harmony. Across the exhibition, visitors encounter visuals of performers dragging relics of the past in shifting formations, a choreography of mechanical elements unfolding without human performers, or an image of a zeppelin lurking above a flock of sheep. While such scenes touch upon the ideas of collective memory, power structures, surveillance, and the complex relationships that shape human experience, the works do not lead toward a singular interpretation. Visitors are instead invited to linger within these environments and discover their own meanings through attentive observation and listening.

Presented alongside historical photographs of Bombay (Mumbai) from the Museum’s collection, his new work, ‘Eagles’, observes birds circling above the city’s skyline. Their movements trace quiet rhythms against the horizon, inviting reflection on the shifting temporalities that shape the city’s landscape and memory. The work resonates meaningfully within the Museum’s own context as a space shaped by layered histories and cultural narratives