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NMACC Brings India to Venice with a Starry Biennale Celebration
Words by Sophie Goodwin
Images by German Larkin, Getty Images & Saskia Lawaks
From India With Love
NMACC gathered the worlds of art, fashion and culture in Venice for a dinner and evening celebration hosted by Isha Ambani, marking the opening of this year’s Pavilion of India at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

Scuola Grande della Misericordia, Venice. Image courtesy NMACC.
The opening of the Pavilion of India at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia was marked in serious style last night with a dinner at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, co-hosted by Isha Ambani and Dr. Amin Jaffer.
The Pavilion of India, presented by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, in partnership with the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) and the Serendipity Arts Foundation, will present its exhibition Geographies of Distance: Remembering Home, until 22 November. Isha’s mother, Nita Ambani, NMACC’s founder and chairperson, was on hand to support her daughter, just weeks after the centre’s third anniversary.
Scuola Grande della Misericordia, Venice
Isha Ambani, Nita Mukesh Ambani & Radhika Ambani
Dinner, Scuola Grande della Misericordia
Nicola Gerber Maramotti , Isha Ambani & Giorgio Guidotti
Isha Ambani & Coco Brandolini d'Adda
Usha & Lakshmi Mittal
Edward Enninful, Wendi Deng Murdoch & Dr Nicholas Cullinan
Dr. Amin Jaffer & Alexandra Munroe
Nita Mukesh Ambani & Diane von Furstenberg
Andrew Lloyd Webber & Madeleine Gurdon
Sumakshi Singh & Asim Waqif
Nita Ambani & Wendi Deng Murdoch
Hans Ulrich Obrist & Yassmin Ghanderhari
Radhika Ambani, Isha Ambani & Manuel Arnaut
Grégoire Marot & Thomas du Pré de Saint Maur
Both the room and guest list were extraordinary. Guests included Dries Van Noten, Diane von Furstenberg, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Roberto Bolle, Wendi Murdoch, Diana Widmaier Picasso, Edward Enninful, Yana Peel, newly settled into her role as President of Chanel, Bettina Korek and Hans Ulrich Obrist from the Serpentine and Jessica Morgan of the Dia Art Foundation.
The institutional contingent alone would have constituted a remarkable gathering: Dr Nicholas Cullinan (The British Museum), Sir Gabriele Finaldi (The National Gallery), Dr Tristram Hunt (The V&A), Mariët Westermann (The Guggenheim), Gregor Muir (Tate).
Dr. Amin Jaffer, Estefania Renaud & Philip Renaud
Dinner, Scuola Grande della Misericordia
Saida Mirziyoyeva and Gayane Umerova
Marghertia Missoni
Contessa Georgina Brandolini d’Adda & Coco Brandolini d'Adda
Christine Schwarzman & Dries Van Noten
Gaby Wagner
Diana Campbell Betancourt & Skarma Sonam Tashi
Agostino & Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and Simone Marchetti
Giovanni Giol, Servane & Roberto Bolle
Francesca Ragazzi & Tiziana Cardini
Jessica Morgan
Jewel
The culinary programme was curated by Chef Ritu Dalmia, whose touch ensured the evening felt as considered on the palate as it did on the eye. Entertainment moved from the classical, Mehtab Ali Niazi, S. Akash, and Ishaan Ghosh, through to Apoorva Krishna and DJ Marnik.
The evening was, above all, a statement: Indian cultural patronage — confident, global, aesthetically serious — has well and truly arrived on the international stage. The Pavilion will be in Venice until November, but the conversation it started will last considerably longer.

The evening’s live entertainment came courtesy of ARAJ Quintet, whose performance added to the atmosphere of the Venice celebration.