Curators

Maestro Bickram Ghosh is widely considered to be one of India’s greatest versatile artists. He is one of the rare artists who excels in three musical fields simultaneously, that includes Indian Classical, Fusion and Film scoring.

Having performed the world over with the greatest names in classical music, including Pt. Ravi Shankar, with whom he played for over a decade. Bickram later went on to form his band, Rhythmscape. He has played on four albums that were nominated for the Grammy Awards. He also played on ‘Full Circle’ with Pt. Ravi Shankar which won the latter a Grammy.
Bickram has composed for 38 feature films and his solo albums — Beyond Rhythmscape, Folktail, Drum Invasion — have gained immense appreciation. Rhythmscape have performed throughout India and made their UK debut in 2003 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. In 2012, Bickram was awarded the prestigious Banga Bhushan Award, the second highest civilian state award in West Bengal and in 2015, he received the Sangeet Maha Samman, the highest musical recognition in West Bengal.

Ehsaan Noorani is an Indian composer and guitarist. He picked up the guitar during high school and the rest is history. He played with multiple bands during his early years and in 1989 he met and collaborated with Loy Mendonsa & Shankar Mahadevan and in 1996 Shankar Ehsaan Loy was formed. Together the trio have composed music for several films: Dus, Dil Chahta Hai, Kal Ho Na Ho, Rock On, Bunty aur Bubli, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, My Name is Khan, Taare Zameen Par, Bhag Milkha Bhag, 2 States, Mirzya, Dil Dhadak Ne Do, Soorma, Raazi, Chappaak and the hugely popular Amazon web series Bandish Bandits.

Chef Thomas Zacharias, known as ChefTZac, is one of India’s most influential culinary voices, known for championing regional Indian ingredients, forgotten food traditions, and sustainable food systems. Trained at the Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration and the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), he began his career in New York at the Michelin three-starred Le Bernardin under Chef Eric Ripert.

In 2014, he set out on a solo food journey across 18 Indian states, documenting local culinary traditions, indigenous ingredients, and home-cooked meals. This experience shaped his food philosophy and led to his role as Chef Partner at Hunger Inc. where he helped build award-winning restaurants like The Bombay Canteen, O Pedro, and Bombay Sweet Shop. Under his leadership, The Bombay Canteen was named India’s No.1 restaurant by Condé Nast Traveller, and he was recognised as Chef of the Year. In 2022, he launched The Locavore—a platform dedicated to transforming India’s food systems through storytelling, community, and impact-led projects. 

Through initiatives like the Wild Food Project, the Millet Revival Project, and the Local Food Club—a growing grassroots movement of food communities across India—he continues to spotlight indigenous knowledge, food diversity, and ecological resilience.

Edible Issues is a food systems collective building experiences, archives, and interventions at the intersection of food, climate, culture, and society. We explore how food connects with ecology, design, technology, and community to imagine better, more sustainable futures.

Diptej Vernekar is an artist and educator whose multidisciplinary practice explores the ambiguity of social phenomena, human error, and technological evolution. A graduate of the University of Hyderabad (MFA), he is co-founder of Goa Open Arts and Goa Artists Collective. His work—spanning charcoal, video, sculpture, and alternative technologies—navigates memory, cultural shifts, and public engagement. 

His fascination with technological mechanisms lies in their ability to reshape how people connect with personal and collective memory. Vernekar’s art has been showcased at India Art Fair, Art Mumbai, Serendipity Arts Festival, and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (Collateral), among others. He is a recipient of the Fundação Oriente Visual Arts Award (2023), Serendipity Public Art Grant (2022), Forbes India30Under30 (2019), and the Inlaks Fine Art Award (2017). He has also participated in residencies like Khoj Peers Residency, What About Art?, and Piramal Art Residency. His work invites viewers to engage with shifting landscapes of memory, function, and identity.

Sahil Naik’s practice examines the modalities of evidence and truth through architecture, minor and casual histories, mythology, forensics and the internet. His current project Monuments, Mausoleums, Memorials, Modernism studies the violence of the nation-building project with a focus on South Asia and the Non-aligned world.
 
His works were included in the 17th Lyon Biennale curated by Alexia Fabre, the 5th edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale curated by Shubigi Rao and the 5th Art Encounters Biennale in Timișoara curated by Adrian Notz. He has exhibited with In ruins at the Matera National Museums, Italy; TBA 21 on st_age; and at Foundation Elpis, Milan. He also exhibited at How to Reappear curated by Kayfa ta at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale; Vitrine in Basel; Delfina Foundation and Asia House in London; Bridget Donahue, New York; Beirut Art Center, Lebanon; MMAG Foundation, Amman; Khoj International Artists’ Association; the Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Japan; and with HH Art Spaces and Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa.