Design Concept

The design of Virasat-e-Khalsa has woven threads of the vernacular aesthetic into the very fabric of the museum’s visual language to highlight a robust, living culture. It is a visual-cum-narrative museum that endeavors to tell a deeply spiritual and stirring story that commemorates the 550 years of tradition and thriving culture of Sikhism and Punjab. 
Mere use of objects and artifacts would not have captured the essence of narrative and its contexts, nor would the images and text. The design approach, therefore, relied on the creation of unique scenographic environment that effectively engages multiple media to present a truly immersive experience for audience of diverse backgrounds.

To create an experience of this scale, the spoken word  plays the role of greater significance over the written one. Thus, a trigger based audio guide serves as a seamless overlay on the scenographic exhibit environments as the visitor moves from one exhibit and gallery to the other.

Working with time & space, the scenographic exhibit environments endeavor to create a theatrical, tactile experience through meaningful and chronological reconstruction of the historical content of each gallery  comprising of composite elements ranging from miniature drawing styles to woven craft traditions to architectural reconstructions to folk ballads, music, audio visuals and ambient audio that allows appropriate rendition of the narrative.

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