Manuscripts of the Rig Veda from India, a rare copy of the Magna Carta from the UK and an anamorphic digital image of Mona Lisa from France will be among the several artefacts to be exhibited at the ‘Culture Corridor’ coming up at the G20 Summit venue here.
Certified original copies of the Charters of Freedom from the US, a fahua lidded jar from China and Panini’s ‘Ashtadhyayi’ from India are some other items that will be part of the corridor.
The ‘Culture Corridor — G20 Digital Museum’ has been envisioned by the Ministry of Culture under India’s presidency of the grouping, and this ‘phygital’ project will be unveiled at the Bharat Mandapam on September 9, coinciding with the opening of the summit.
The exhibition of artefacts — in physical and digital formats — will be done on the same floor level where the leaders’ meetings will take place, and they will walk through this ‘cultural corridor’ while moving into and out of the summit room, official sources said.
As part of this one-of-a-kind project, conceptualised about six months ago, India had asked each G20 member and invited countries to make submissions under four categories — one physical object of cultural significance, one “iconic cultural masterpiece” in digital format, high-resolution digital content depicting the intangible heritage, and natural heritage of each of the countries.
China has made “beautiful submissions” in the first four categories, but in the fifth category, “no artefact has been been received so far from it”, another source said.
Physical artefacts have arrived in India and are currently being stored at a place in New Delhi and over the next few days, these will be displayed at the Bharat Mandapam in time for the summit, the sources said.
They said after the summit, this exhibition will be opened for the people and visitors.