A phone, a shared screen and an AI mirror: the Alliance Française of Madras opens a digital art show at Espace24 in Nungambakkam that runs to 30 November.
Bring a phone.
From Thursday, visitors to Espace24, the gallery at the Alliance Française of Madras on College Road in Nungambakkam (நுங்கம்பாக்கம்), can draw on their own screens and watch the lines join a single digital canvas that people in other cities are adding to at the same moment. The work is called Let’s Draw, One World, One Canvas. It is one of two interactive installations in Communs.Commons, an exhibition of digital art that runs from 12 to 30 November as Chennai’s part of Novembre Numérique, the digital arts season of the Institut français.
The second piece is more personal. Painting Mirror, See Yourself Through Art, takes a visitor’s photograph and uses generative AI to redraw it in the manner of four Indian painting traditions: Gond, Madhubani, Warli and Kalamkari.
Sixteen Alliances, one theme
This is the sixth edition of the festival in the Indian subcontinent, and this year’s theme is the commons, the idea of shared space and shared resources that gives the Chennai show its name. Sixteen Alliances Françaises in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are taking part between 13 November and 7 December. Chennai starts a day before that window. Let’s Draw is credited to the French digital artist Maxime Touroute.
The Chennai show was announced with daily timings of 10 am to 6 pm. The Alliance’s own published hours for the Espace24 gallery are narrower: Monday to Friday, 10 am to 6 pm, closed on public holidays. Weekend visitors should ring ahead on 044 2827 9803 before making the trip to College Road. No entry fee has been published. The building has a lift and wheelchair access, and its car park takes up to 25 cars and 50 two-wheelers. For cultural activities, the Alliance asks callers to dial extension 3.
12-30 November
Communs.Commons at Espace24, Alliance Française of Madras, 24 College Road, Nungambakkam.
7 December
Novembre Numérique closes across the 16 participating Alliances.
Checked against official sources on 12 November 2026.
