Sustainability NOW: Arts for Placemaking in Mumbai

Ketaki Bhadgaonkar is an Urban Designer and co-founder of Bombay 61 Studio. Bombay 61 Studio is an innovative and experimental urban solutions think tank. It facilitates the urban design and research projects with public participation as the key idea, creates and has been deeply involved in developing experiential architecture and design projects since 2013. Ketaki has always been passionate about exploring the evolution and future of dense, urban neighbourhoods. She believes that these neighbourhoods are like organisms and need a very critical and surgical approach. Ketaki uses her experience in the professional world to channel her passion for teaching in the academic world and is currently teaching at KRVIA, Mumbai.

Arzan Khambatta is an Architect by profession and a sculptor by choice. Encouraged by his parents, he started sculpting in his teens by scouting the streets, garages, construction sites for scrap metal, and welding them into pieces of art he fondly christened “SCRAPTURES”– A word that has become synonymous with Arzan. What started off purely as a hobby, slowly began to yield income when his first buyer, Architect Dara Mistry bought his first piece for 2000 Rs. He got his first public response when he opened SCRAPTURES to the public at the Jehangir Art gallery. There was no looking back after that. Commissioned works started pouring in, the first one being the MOGHUL outside the jewel of India at the Nehru centre commissioned by Noshir Talati. Now Khambatta’s works are found in corporate houses, hotels, and private collections around the world and range from six inches to seventy feet in height, The most prominent ones being THE LEGEND, a sculpture made from the scrap of INS Vikrant, which pays tribute to the ship itself, and the DOLPHINS at Worli. One of his largest works is a 3.5-ton, 25 feet diameter suspension in an atrium of a building in Pune. Currently, 13 solo shows and over 100 group shows and charity auctions around the country and the globe, Arzan has embarked on a venture that is close to his heart, namely Photography. He also made a small film titled “DECIBEL”, a whacky view of noise pollution in our city. This movie has had successful screenings at the Kaala Ghoda festivals. Besides sculpting and photography, Arzan dabbles in a number of activities namely designing props and sets for experimental plays, and designing and making trophies, he is an avid Iyenger yoga practitioner, loves travelling abroad, and extensively by road in India, he loves food, friends and family, he teaches sculpture and creativity to kids at his studio, he cycles extensively and is currently solving a jigsaw puzzle that has 18 thousand pieces. A large part of his time he spends imparting his craft to children from all strata of society, be it the IB schools or the NGO children from slums and the streets of Bombay. He is passionate about his work and takes up challenges, which defy his own creativity with every new piece he sculpts. His favourite saying is “THE IMPOSSIBLE JUST TAKES A LITTLE LONGER”.

Hanif Kureshi is Artist Director at St+art India Foundation. An artist and a designer working with Street Art and typography, Hanif absorbs the surroundings into his works and evokes a sense of memory grabbing the attention of the viewers. He has an ironic and sarcastic approach, working in multiple mediums combining into a single composition. His ongoing project, hand-painted type, attempts to conserve and archive the vernacular street typography of India, which he felt is a characteristic medium of Indian traditions seeming to be lost. Hanif is also the co-founder of St+art India Foundation which aims to make art accessible to a larger audience through a series of Street Art festivals. His work has been exhibited at the London Design Biennale, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris, Triennale Design Museum, Milan, and Sikka Art Fair Dubai among others. In 2016, GQ magazine named Hanif as one of the 50 most influential young Indians.

Alisha Sadikot is a museum and heritage educator who uses walking tours as a tool to encourage creative public engagement with Mumbai's urban histories, art and museum collections. Specifically through Art Walks Mumbai, which she co-founded and runs, Alisha aims to broaden, deepen – and just make more fun – conversations on art in the city. Formerly, Alisha was Curator, Education & Outreach, at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum.

Naman Saraiya is a Mumbai-based filmmaker, writer and journalist working across South Asia.His journalism and film work appears on VICE, Deutsche Welle, Red Bull Music, St+art Festival, and Purpose Climate Lab amongst others. Exploring the intersections of culture and identity, Saraiya's work moves across music, gender, mental health, politics, caste and class, technology and food. He is the director of Kya Bolta Bantai, which charts the rise of gully rap in India. Saraiya's upcoming work includes the documentary series, My Daughter Joined A Cult, for Discovery+ and a feature-length exploration of India’s gun culture, part of a pan-Asia series for VICE World News, titled Point Blank.