2017

Projects / Processes (P/P) is an initiative launched by Serendipity Arts Foundation in 2017 to publish commissioned research essays, longform writing and in-depth criticism that explore the ideas and processes behind select curatorial projects at Serendipity Arts Festival. The Projects / Processes series offers an opportunity to give projects and the stories that they tell continued life, through a deeply engaged look at how they came together and their significance to the discourse of contemporary art in India moving forward. Each volume comprises essays covering distinct projects that stand in some dialogue with each other, through the questions they raise and the thematic landscape they cover.

Managing Editor: Nandita Jaishankar
Series Editor: Kanika Anand
Copy-editor: Arnav Adhikari

Contributors
Anuj Daga, Arnav Adhikari, Debashree Mukherjee, Deepa Bhasthi, Gargi Bharadwaj, Kanika Anand, Kanika Makhija , Khorshed Deboo, Niveditha Kuttaiah, Prayas Abhinav, Ranjana Dave, Sabih Ahmed, Shaikh John Bashur, Vidya Shivadas

  • VOLUME 1

    ESSAY 1

    Improvising History: Archival Negotiations and Memory in The Music Stopped, But We Were Still Dancing by Arnav Adhikari

    Arnav Adhikari is a writer and editor based in New Delhi. As
    an Editorial Fellow at The Atlantic in Washington, DC between
    2016 and 2017, he covered books, music, and popular culture
    for the website. His writing on the arts has also appeared in the
    Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Hyperallergic.
    Arnav is a consulting editor at Serendipity Arts Foundation/
    Festival, where he helps oversee content and research projects
    across various platforms. Most recently, he contributed
    writing for the artist Ratna Gupta’s solo show everything is
    precious (2018) at Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai.
    Read More

    ESSAY 2

    A Cinematic Imagination: Josef Wirsching and The Bombay Talkies by Debashree Mukherjee

    Debashree Mukherjee is Assistant Professor of South Asian
    film and visual cultures at Columbia University in New York.
    Her current book project, “Parallel Action: Bombay Cinema
    and the Practice of Modernity,” presents a cultural history of
    early Bombay cinema (1920s-1940s) that privileges material
    practice, circuits of work, and technologies of production,
    and draws inspiration from her own experience of working in
    Mumbai’s film and television industries in the early 2000s.
    Debashree has published widely, has curated exhibitions
    on film ephemera, and is a core editor of the peer-reviewed
    journal BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies.
    Read More

  • VOLUME 2

    ESSAY 1

    The Grammar of Reversal: An Essay on Anti-Memoirs: Locus, Language, Landscape by Khorshed Deboo

    Khorshed Deboo is an independent writer and text editor
    based in Bombay. She writes on art and culture and enjoys
    making photographs. Her writing has appeared in publications
    such as The Hindu, Scroll.in, Roads & Kingdoms, and Mint Lounge.
    As a text editor, she has worked on exhibitions such as State of
    Housing (2018) and Sakti Burman: In The Presence of Another Sky
    (2017), among others. Her previous stints include working at
    Tarq, a contemporary art gallery in Bombay, and BBC Good Food
    India magazine. She currently works as Contributing Copy
    Editor at Domus India magazine, and is Curatorial Assistant
    (Visual Arts) for Serendipity Arts Festival.
    Read More

    ESSAY 2

    The Young Subcontinent Project: An Intermediate Analysis by
    Anuj Daga

    Anuj Daga graduated as an architect from Mumbai University
    (2008) and went on pursue his interests in History & Theory
    of Architecture as well as design research through the
    interdisciplinary Master of Environmental Design program
    at Yale School of Architecture, USA (2014). His practice is
    informed by his diverse engagements in fields of design,
    research and academia that have resulted into numerous roles
    of writer, critic, commentator, theorist or interlocutor in the
    cultural field. Anuj has worked with several cultural institutions
    as well as research & artist organizations including Max Mueller
    Bhavan Mumbai, Collective Research Initiatives Trust (CRIT)
    – Mumbai, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) – New York and
    Critical Art & Media Practices (CAMP) – Mumbai in different
    capacities. He has keen interest in studying the visual culture
    in art & architecture and the way different visual media tie into
    the expression of contemporary built environment. He has been
    a consulting architect & strategist at the Godrej Innovation
    Centre, Mumbai. He is the Curatorial Assistant to Riyas Komu
    for the visual arts project “Young Subcontinent” since first
    organized by Serendipity Arts Trust in Goa in 2016. Currently,
    he is an Assistant Professor at the School of Environment &
    Architecture, Mumbai.
    Read More

  • VOLUME 3

    ESSAY 1

    The Ground Beneath My Feet by Sabih Ahmed

    Sabih Ahmed is a Researcher at Asia Art Archive based in
    New Delhi. He conceptualises and leads research initiatives
    on modern and contemporary art, has led projects digitising
    artist archives and creating digital bibliographies of art across
    multiple languages, and has organised colloquia and seminars
    around archiving and educational resources. Ahmed has been a
    Visiting Faculty at School of Culture and Creative Expression,
    Ambedkar University, Delhi. His recent writings have been
    published by Mousse Publications, The Whitworth, and
    Oncurating. He was a member of the Curatorial Collegiate of
    the 11th Shanghai Biennale curated by Raqs Media Collective.
    Read More

    ESSAY 2

    Detritus: Matter Out of Place by Vidya Shivadas

    Vidya Shivadas is a curator based in New Delhi. She completed
    her Masters in Art Criticism from Faculty of Fine Arts, M S
    University, Vadodara in 2000. She is currently the Director since
    2011 of the not-for-profit Foundation for Indian Contemporary
    Art (FICA). FICA was set up in 2007 to support artists, art
    historians, curators, art critics, and other professionals devoted
    to the study of contemporary Indian art, as well as to conduct
    educational and art outreach programmes.
    She has curated a number of exhibitions at the Vadehra Art
    Gallery since 2002 which include Off the Record: Meditations on
    the Photographic Image (2015), Porous (2012), The Seeds, Yoko
    Ono (2012), Something I’ve been meaning to tell you (co-curated
    with Sunil Gupta, 2011), Faiza Butt, Ruby Chishti, Masooma
    Syed (three Pakistani women artists, 2009), Fluid Structures:
    Gender and Abstraction in India, 1970s – 2008 (2008), Objects:
    Making/Unmaking (2007). In 2009 she was a guest curator at Devi Art Foundation and worked on the solo exhibition of Bangladeshi artist Mahbubur Rahman. In 2013 she co-curated (with Akansha Rastogi and
    Deeksha Nath) the exhibition Zones of Contact: Propositions on
    the Museumat Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Noida (January
    – November, 2013). In 2014 she was curatorial advisor for
    Where Do I End and You Begin, an exhibition on the theme of
    Commonwealth at Edinburgh in 2014 to coincide with the
    Commonwealth Games in Scotland.
    Read More

  • Volume 4

    ESSAY 1

    Mixed, Fused, and Rehashed Cultural Hybridity Through Ethnic Dress by
    Kanika Anand

    Kanika Anand is a Delhi based art writer and curator. She
    holds a Master’s degree in History of Art from the National
    Museum Institute, India and has been curatorial fellow at the
    Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, 2012-13. She
    has worked extensively with galleries and alternative spaces
    such as Exit Art and the Gagosian Gallery in the United States,
    the Centre National d’Art Contemporain in France and with
    Exhibit 320 and Gallery Espace in India. She is the Founder of
    Parked-At, a roving exhibition platform, presenting alternative
    modes of viewing, engagement and participation and is the
    Exhibition Coordinator for the first edition of the Indian
    Ceramics Triennale, Breaking Ground: Jawahar Kala Kendra,
    Jaipur, 2018.
    Read More

    ESSAY 2

    Is My Horizon Different From Yours? The Curious Case of Goan Identity by Kanika Anand

    Kanika Anand is a Delhi based art writer and curator. She
    holds a Master’s degree in History of Art from the National
    Museum Institute, India and has been curatorial fellow at the
    Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, 2012-13. She
    has worked extensively with galleries and alternative spaces
    such as Exit Art and the Gagosian Gallery in the United States,
    the Centre National d’Art Contemporain in France and with
    Exhibit 320 and Gallery Espace in India. She is the Founder of
    Parked-At, a roving exhibition platform, presenting alternative
    modes of viewing, engagement and participation and is the
    Exhibition Coordinator for the first edition of the Indian
    Ceramics Triennale, Breaking Ground: Jawahar Kala Kendra,
    Jaipur, 2018.
    Read More

  • Volume 5

    ESSAY 1

    Theatrical Explorations of Contemporaneity Quality Street / Shikhandi / Dumb Wait-err by Gargi Bhardwaj

    Gargi Bharadwaj is a theatre practitioner and a research
    scholar based in Delhi, India. She graduated from the National
    School of Drama, Delhi with a specialization in Theatre
    Techniques, Design and Direction (2007) and completed
    MAIPR (2008-2010) from University of Amsterdam and
    University of Warwick. As a theatre practitioner between
    her formal education she directs performances, conducts
    theatre workshops and curates theatre festivals. Her doctoral
    research focuses on state cultural policy and issues of cultural
    governance and citizenship in India. Other areas of interest are
    genealogies of contemporary theatre, performance curation,
    representation and self-articulations of women in public
    culture. She has presented research papers at conferences in
    University of Lisbon, University of Warwick, University of
    Cape Town and University of Hyderabad. She teaches courses
    on history/historiography of performance and practice based
    research methodology in Performance studies at SCCE,
    Ambedkar University, Delhi.
    Read More

    ESSAY 2

    Purush by Ranjana Dave

    Ranjana Dave is a dancer and arts writer. She co-founded
    Dance Dialogues, a Bombay-based initiative that helps dancers
    connect with provocative and diverse ideas, individuals and
    institutions. Within dance, she has explored the strands
    of writing, archiving, performance and pedagogy. She has
    written for Firstpost, Hindu, Scroll, and Tanz. She curated an
    online archive of dance video on Pad.ma. Her current interest
    in pedagogy and learning environments emerges from her
    experience of learning and practising classical dance. Ranjana
    is programmes director at the Gati Dance Forum in New Delhi
    and has worked on developing pedagogical frameworks that
    encourage critical thinking and a reflexive artistic practice as
    part of its curriculum development initiatives.
    Read More

    ESSAY 3

    Towards New Beginnings Sari: The Unstitched / Sandhi by Ranjana Dave

    Ranjana Dave is a dancer and arts writer. She co-founded
    Dance Dialogues, a Bombay-based initiative that helps dancers
    connect with provocative and diverse ideas, individuals and
    institutions. Within dance, she has explored the strands
    of writing, archiving, performance and pedagogy. She has
    written for Firstpost, Hindu, Scroll, and Tanz. She curated an
    online archive of dance video on Pad.ma. Her current interest
    in pedagogy and learning environments emerges from her
    experience of learning and practising classical dance. Ranjana
    is programmes director at the Gati Dance Forum in New Delhi
    and has worked on developing pedagogical frameworks that
    encourage critical thinking and a reflexive artistic practice as
    part of its curriculum development initiatives.
    Read More

  • Volume 6

    ESSAY 1

    Jaali: Its Past and Present by Kanika Makhija

    Kanika Makhija attained her Master’s in Visual Arts from
    Ambedkar University, Delhi (2016) and completed her
    Bachelor’s in Fine Arts (painting) from College of Art, Delhi
    (2014). She is an Assistant Researcher in Mumbai for a project
    by Centre for Studies of Developing Societies, Delhi and
    Center for Studies of Social Sciences, Calcutta (2018). She
    did a research project with SPADE, a research journal for
    design and architect supported by Samira Rathod Design
    Associations. She also assisted Vibha Galhotra in research
    for art project “Symphony or Cacophony” that was exhibited
    in Exhibit320 Gallery in New Delhi (2017). She has been part
    of several group shows, with recently being Take/The/City
    curated by Niccolo Moscatelli supported by Clark House
    Initiative(2017), International Print Exchange, initiated
    by Green Door Printmaking Studios, Derby, UK (2017) and
    Narcissism and Social Interaction, Curated by Parasher Naik
    at Clark House Initiative, Mumbai, India (2017). Kanika was
    also part of the Programming team for the first edition of
    Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa (2016).
    Read More

    ESSAY 2

    Brinjal: The Royal-Hued Wonder and Coconut: A Marvel Ingredient by Deepa Bhasthi

    Deepa Bhasthi is a writer based in Bengaluru, India. She is
    one of the co-founders, and the editor, of Forager Collective,
    a collaboration between the writer and three artists, who
    seek to explore the issues and ideas that are changing as well
    as shaping the politics, culture, physical geographies and
    socio-economic structures in the contemporary world. Her
    works have appeared in several publications including Himal
    Southasian, Indian Quarterly, The New Indian Express, OPEN
    magazine, The Hindu Business Line’s BLInk, The Hindu, Art
    India and elsewhere on the web.
    Read More

    ESSAY 3

    A Study of the Barefoot School of Craft: Made in Goa by Niveditha Kuttaiah

    Niveditha Kuttaiah is an independent researcher with
    a background in Art History. Her research areas include,
    Arts Education, Environmental Histories, Popular Culture,
    Cultural Anthropology, and Apiology. After graduating
    from Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Bombay, in 1983, Dean
    d’Cruz joined architect Gerard Da Cunha as an assistant in
    Goa in 1985. Enamored by the soft and human scale of Goa’s
    Architecture and lifestyle he decided to stay. In 1986 he became
    a partner in a firm called Natural Architecture, working on cost
    effective housing in a very Laurie Baker approach using waste
    building materials and innovative design. In 1994 he expanded
    base of design work, taking on small hotels, large houses
    and institutional work as principal architect of Dean D’Cruz
    & Associates. In 2001 he co-founded Mozaic, with general
    collaboration between disciplines as the core ethic. Having
    been part of the State Level Committee for the making of the
    Regional Plan 2021 for Goa, his current emphasis is on urban
    interventions, sustainable principles and conservation.
    Read More

  • VOLUME 7

    ESSAY 1

    The Legacy of the Surabhi Family Theatre by Shaik John Bashur

    Shaik John Bashur, a theatre activist and a
    practitioner of theatre for young audience, completed his
    Masters with a Gold Medal from the Dept of Theatre Arts,
    University of Hyderabad, in 2009. He has been conducting
    workshops and making performances for underprivileged
    children for the past 10 years. He has been associated
    with grass root level NGOS, conducting teacher training
    programmes in the field of Theatre in Education (TiE).
    He has presented research papers in various national
    and international conferences such as the University of
    Stockholm, the University of Oslo, Pondicherry Central
    University, and the University of Hyderabad. As a theatre
    practitioner, he has been associated with International
    Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFOK), International
    Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR), International Ibsen
    Festival, and Theatre Outreach Unit (ToU). He is currently
    pursuing his PhD from University of Hyderabad, and his
    area of doctoral research mainly focuses on the influence of
    Henrik Ibsen on Indian Theatre.
    Read More

    ESSAY 2

    The Public Loom by Prayas Abhinav

    Prayas Abhinav is an artist, teacher, and entrepreneur. At
    present, he is working on a startup called Storyflock that has
    interests in e-learning, applied research, and novel forms
    of content development. He has worked in the last few
    years on numerous pieces of speculative fiction, software,
    games, interactive installations, public interventions, and
    curatorial projects. He has written extensively on poetic
    thought as a form of lingual communication. He contributed
    to research and projects at northeastwestsouth (n.e.w.s)
    (Amsterdam, NL). He has conducted workshops at Centre for
    Environmental Planning Technology (CEPT) (Ahmedabad),
    Dutch Art Institute (Arnhem, NL), MICA (Ahmedabad) and
    National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad & Bangalore). In the
    past he led the Centre for Experimental Media Arts (CEMA) at
    the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore.
    He is the initiator and the Director of the Museum of Vestigial
    Desire and founding member of Surfatial.
    He has developed his research and practice with the
    support of fellowships by Sarai, Openspace, the Center for
    Experimental Media Arts (CEMA), TED and Lucid. He has
    been in residencies at Khoj (India), Coded Cultures (Austria)
    and dis-locate (Japan). He has shared his work at a wide range
    of festivals and venues including Exit Art, Transmediale, 48c,
    Futuresonic, ISEA and Wintercamp.
    Read More