Boribunder @ Platform 8: Art in Public Spaces, a Symposium

Farah Siddiqui is a specialist in contemporary art from Southeast Asia particularly India and Pakistan. With several years of experience as a consultant in modern and contemporary art, Farah Siddiqui has been advising collectors on all aspects on art from the subcontinent. In the last decade, Farah Siddiqui has been the curator of several successful exhibitions in traditional genres of painting and sculpture in addition to contemporary media of video and photography and has also been involved with fund raising activities for charity. Since 2009, Farah Siddiqui has been associated with global art firm – Artconsulting. In addition to working with private collectors, she has worked on unique projects with Forbes, India. Current projects include consulting Piramal Art Foundation, Mumbai and NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE. A contributor to art columns in several newspapers, travel and banking publications including Jet wings, DNA, India Today, Air India, 24k- Citibank magazine and BNP Paribas, Farah is also often invited for her specialist views on CNBC Asia, ET now and Bloomberg India to discuss the current state and outlook of the South Asian art Market.

"Eve Lemesle is a graduate of La Sorbonne in arts management and holds a diploma in South-Asia studies from INALCO (Paris). In 2013, she launched WAA residency, a not-for-profit artists’ residency in Mumbai that offers individual studio space, accommodation, professional networking opportunities and an intellectually stimulating environment for dialogue on visual arts practices for artists and curators. Prior to settling in Mumbai, Lemesle has run artists’ residencies in Montreal and Paris for a decade. Since she settled in Mumbai in 2009, she has also started What about art?, a first-of-its-kind arts management agency in India. WAA produces ambitious art projects within the growing South-Asian art scene. Among recent projects are production of the India-Pakistan pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Dhaka Art Summit in Bangladesh, the solo exhibition of William Kentridge in Mumbai, the Public art program Art in Chennai and conservation of important art collections in South-Asia."

Owais Husain was born in 1967 in Mumbai and graduated with his Fine Arts degree from Sir J.J School of Art in 1990. He learned lithography and print-making at the Kanoria Centre for Arts and completed apprenticeships under influential Indian artist Jagdish Swaminathan in Bhopal, and Robert Blackburn at the Printmaking Workshop in New York. Owais developed a rich mixed-media practice early into his career. Using film, photography, painting, sculpture, installation and poetry - in various combinations or on their own - he creates visually textured works that both reference his roots in a traditional Indian figurative style and embody his constant pursuit to evolve and contemporize that iconography. His work explores identity, iconography and urban mythology and it’s evolution from one generation to the next, illustrating his relationship with and abstraction of a more traditional Indian aesthetic. He has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows throughout galleries and museums in India; including the National Museum of Art, Tao Gallery, Mumbai (1995 – 2010), Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi (1995 -1998), Gallery 88 Calcutta (2000), and Sakshi Gallery Bangalore (1994); and internationally at the Tate Modern, London (2001), Aicon Gallery New York (2006), the W Foundation, Seoul (2014), and the Burj Khalifa and Capsule Arts, Dubai (2013, 2015). His films have been screened at the London International Film Festival (2000), the Berlin Film Biennale (2001), the Cannes Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival (2004), the Tribeca International Film Festival, Doha (2010), and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (2014). Owais Husain currently lives and works in Dubai and Mumbai.

Anupa is an experienced and driven arts professional with accomplishments across the areas of arts advisory, arts management, curating, marketing, fundraising, publishing and events. She is proficient in dealing with decision makers and has worked with CEOs and Brand Managers to create special events aimed at building marketing synergies between arts and business. She is also a published author, columnist & personal story coach.

Kaiwan Mehta: Born in Mumbai, Kaiwan Mehta, he is a theorist and critic in the fields of visual culture, architecture, and city studies. He recently submitted his doctoraal thesis at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bengaluru, under the aegis of Manipal University; and has now published as well as exhibited his research work and ideas internationally. He authored Alice in Bhuleshwar: Navigating a Mumbai Neighbourhood (Yoda Press. New Delhi, 2009). Since March 2012 he has been the Managing Editor of Domus India (Spenta Multimedia) and writes prolifically on architetcure, aesthetics, and cities. He has set up courses in Architecture Theory as well as Art, Criticism and Theory, the politics around Craft as well as Aesthetics, and teaches across various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Mumbai. He has been elected as the Jury Chairman for two consecutive terms (2015–17 and 2017–2019) for the international artists’ residency programme across 11 disciplines at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. Mehta recently co-curated with Rahul Mehrotra and Ranjit Hoskote the national exhibition on architecture – “The State of Architetcure: Practices and Processes in India” (UDRI, 2016) at the NGMA, Mumbai. He has recently authored the book The Architecture of I M Kadri (Niyogi. New Delhi, 2016)

"Reema Gehi is a journalist with a special interest in arts and culture stories. Since 2011, she has been working with a leading Times of India Group publication, Mumbai Mirror, and writes regularly and extensively on the arts and culture scene in Mumbai. She has formerly worked with Hindustan Times, as an arts writer and contributed to a variety of publications and websites including, Mumbai Theatre Guide, Open, Hardnews and Varta (art magazine). She has completed her Masters in Journalism Studies (with a special focus on arts journalism) from Cardiff University, United Kingdom. While studying in the UK in 2010, she assisted the communications officer over eight weeks as part of a work experience programme with the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff and worked as a press and marketing assistant with the C Venues, a London-based performance arts company, which curates 10 per cent of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. An avid theatre enthusiast, in 2009, Reema completed her Trinity Guildhall London (Speech and Drama) Grade 8 examination with a distinction, and trained students appearing for their TCL exams (from 2005 to 2009) during her training. She has also served as a co-director of India's premier youth theatre fest, Thespo, in 2008."

Durga Gawde graduated with a BFA in Sculpture from The Rhode Island School of Design. Her artistic practice is informed by an understanding of life, through the congruence of investigation of the self and biological forms. She enjoys sharing her creative skills with the world through dialogue and demonstration. Through her practice she aims to nurture and challenge the creative thought process of individuals from various fields and age groups.

Zeenat Nagree is an art critic and curator currently based in Mumbai. She​ has completed an MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History, Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art ​Institute of Chicago with research on indigenism and transnational networks of modernism. Over the last six years, Nagree has written for Time Out, ART India and Artforum, and has contributed curatorial texts for a number of publications. She has also worked as the Text Editor at ART India. She was recently in residence at Art Lab Gnesta, Sweden.

Leena Kejriwal is a Photographer and Installation Artist. Leena has been brand ambassador for Fuji India and an artist in residence in France in 2006/07. Her work has been published in various publications. Her seminal work “Calcutta: Repossessing the City” was launched as a book, published by Om Books International (2007) has been a best seller. Leena’s two part photography installation, titled “East City” for The Birla Academy of Art and Culture has been shown in Delhi, Iran and Germany. Her work has always reflected her preoccupation with human trafficking and has found a new language in her public art work MISSING. The MISSING Public art project uses the public as important stakeholders in the project. The work was launched at the India Art Fair in 2014 and since then with the aid of a successful crowd funding campaign has gathered support and spread awareness on the plight of young girls lost into the dark holes of sex trafficking. The project will soon partner with UNICEF to spread awareness on trafficking in West Bengal. The Women and Child welfare ministry will also using the MISSING art works to spread awareness on the issue. The project is traversing between the tangible and the intangible public spaces and connecting them through the underlying single purpose to generate curiosity, recognition and finally a sense of deep loss.

Jaideep Mehrotra's genesis to the art world was a solo exhibition in 1967. In the course of 40 years, he has evolved a unique style, starting out with works in oil, acrylic and cast resin sculptures. The advent of the computer added a new dimension to his work. He pioneered the use of the digital art in the country, diversifying into an amalgam of painting, computer generated imagery and video art. Jaideep is rated amongst India's most perspicacious and inventive contemporary artists. He has had 22 solo exhibitions and numerous group representations, both in India and abroad. His work forms part of the collections of prestigious companies and individuals all over the world.

Ratan Batliboi is an alumnus of Sir J.J. College of Architecture. He is one of the leading architects in Mumbai and heads the prestigious firm- Ratan J. Batliboi Consultants Pvt. Ltd. an innovative, progressive architecture firm established in 1988. He has been actively involved in urban design projects in and around Mumbai for the last twenty years. Some of their diverse works in urban design and planning include Marine Drive makeover, Bandra-Worli Sealink, Yamuna Bridge and various architecture, interior and retail design projects. His firm belief lies in an integrated approach to design by challenging conventional beliefs of aesthetics and planning. It engages with a multiplicity of interdisciplinary issues concerning cost efficient effective solutions which have the characteristic hallmark of good design.

Leandre D'Souza holds a Master's in Arts Criticism from City University. Since 2009, she's run ArtOxygen (ArtO2) which is aimed at curating and producing art projects in public, open spaces. Since 2010, she's organized [en]counters, a public art festival dealing with issues affecting the everyday life of Mumbai. In September 2013, she was invited to curate the participation of Indian and international artists at the biennial Haein Art Project at Haeinsa Temple in South Korea. In 2014, she received an award for Culture and Change bestowed by the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development which enabled the production of [en]counters 2015 - Spaces in Transition at the iconic CST Terminus. She also curates independently, and has recently done so at the Sensorium 2015/16 Art Festival for Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts, among others.