ST. MORITZ.- This year for the seventh time, the unique setting of the Engadin hosts St. Moritz Art Masters 2014. This annual arts and cultural festival will take place from August 22 to August 31, 2014. This year's focus on India promises diverse artistic positions from the contemporary Indian art scene, which ranges from young to established artists presenting a diverse range of art from site-specific interventions to Indian Classical Modernism. In addition to a high-profile program of Indian, national and international contemporary art, the St. Moritz Art Masters festival stands out with special exhibition sites and the Walk of Art. Sculptures and artistic works in private and public spaces and unconventional venues feature artworks from a new perspective, beyond the usual "white cube."

Focus on India Freed from the burden of a colonial past, contemporary Indian artists address current pressing questions of today by linking ritual, myth and everyday life in a unique manner. The vibrant field of contemporary Indian art reflects the Indian nation's rapid change and contrasts, giving Indian artists a unique voice within the international art scene.

The group exhibition "India: Maximum City" presents works by nine emerging artists who work closely with the dynamic and uncontrolled growth of Indian cities. The works by Gigi Scaria , Hema Upadhyay , Manish Nai , Mithu Sen , Pablo Bartholomew , Pratul Das , Ranbir Kaleka , Reena Saini Kallat and Sooni Tarraporevala can be seen in the Chesa Planta in Zuoz. Works by Shilpa Gupta , Subodh Gupta and Nalini Malani address cross- cultural issues by exploring the effects of traditions on life today and by questioning national and cultural stereotypes.

As part of the India theme, we also present a group exhibition of works from the Stellar International Art Foundation, the Choudhrie family's private collection. This collection is presented to the public for the first time and consists primarily of Modern Art from India. The exhibition is co-curated by Paresh Maity and Anita Choudhrie and shows works by M F Husain , Paresh Maity and Jayasri Burman .

A film installation by renowned Swiss curator and filmmaker Matthias Brunner will be staged in the recently restored Paracelsus building in St. Moritz Bad to honour Bengali director Satyajit Ray 's “The Music Room.” THE MUSIC ROOM (1958), which is his most impactful work, also opens a small film series presenting the best of Indian film from each decade (1958-2013). The films will be screened in their original version and with German/French subtitles from 25 to 30 August, 2014 at Kino Scala, St. Moritz.

The St. Moritz Art Masters' program fuses local access and international cultural exchange. In this context, this arts and cultural festival also presents a monumental tent installation by American artist Francesco Clemente . He creates these tents in India and refers to them as "cave paintings" or "mobile chapels." Clemente’s tents take us to a place of silence and contemplation. Another highlight of this year's festival is British artist Billy Childish . He references the Engadin artist Giovanni Segantini In his multi-part image series. These works, large-format paintings, were developed specifically for St. Moritz Art Masters and are being exhibited in the French Church of St. Moritz.