Supported by JSW and curated by independent researcher and curator, Shaleen Wadhwana, the 2026 Talks Programme– Rising to Challenge, brings together artists, curators, thinkers, and cultural leaders to address the overarching question: What Makes Art Happen? Each panel responds to this question with a “challenge”— from long-standing issues of access, accountability and social difference, to urgent contemporary concerns such as Artificial Intelligence and indigenizing cultural spaces.
All talks are conducted in English and Indian Sign Language (ISL), with some talks in Hindi, Punjabi, Odia, and Saura* live translated for the audience.
*Saura (also known as Soura or Sora) is recognised as one of the oldest Indigenous languages of the Indian subcontinent
THEMATIC PREMISE
In delving deeper into art making contexts of showcasing collective histories and geographies impacted by historical social differences of caste, class, race and gender, we acknowledge the role time has to play in decolonising and holding history and contemporary times accountable. As art makers and curators, what are the specific challenges in representing collective histories from these lenses in your practices? In encountering the wider global and local politics, what were the resistances, challenges and triumphs you have faced in your journey – and how can we build hope for the next generation of artists and curators who want to embark on these footsteps?
Artists’ and curators’ practices engage with how such collective historical response builds over decades of lived experiences, research and speaking truth to power. In doing so, catalysts like curators and institutions support them in their journey. For all the panellists this panel is to enrich this journey with real world examples of how race, class, caste and gender play into shaping audience engagement with the creators of our time.
SPEAKERS
PRIYANKA SAMY
Feminist Activist
Co-Convener of National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW)
Priyanka Samy is a Dalit feminist activist based in India, serving as the Co-convenor of National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW), a grassroots network of women-led community-based organizations. From 2020-2023, she was one of three National Gender Youth Advocates (NGYA) from India driving the UN Women’s Generation Equality Campaign. Board of Director at FRIDA|The Young Feminist Fund and Board Member of International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN), working globally to address caste-based discrimination. She is also a Guest Practitioner at School of Advanced Study, University of London. Currently Global Gender and Intersectionality Lead at International Budget Partnership. Samy’s work advances human rights and addresses intersectional challenges faced by marginalized communities from the grassroots to the global level.
AMOL K PATIL
Performance Artist
Amol K Patil is a conceptual and performance artist who works at the intersection of kinetic installation, performance art and video installation. Born in Mumbai (b. 1987), surrounded by ‘chawl’ architecture, his recent work investigates and aims to recapture the sound, rhythm and vibrating beats of this built form commonly found in Mumbai’s urban landscape. Patil is expanding his research on the construct of urbanization and invisibility of the working class in emergent urban imaginaries. His project is to build counter-memory and contest narratives that describe and disturb the relationship between humans and landscapes. In 2025, Amol’s work was a part of group exhibitions titled Once Within a Time, SITE SANTA FE (Santa Fe, U.S.) and Berlin Biennale (Germany). He also exhibited solo at The Shadow of Lustre, Röda Sten Konsthall, Göteborg, Sweden (2025) and ‘MATRIX 286/Amol K Patil: A Forest of Remembrance’ at BAMPFA, Berkeley, California.
IBRAHIM MAHAMA
Artist and Founder of Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, RedClay Studio and Nikromah Voli-ni, Ghana.
Ibrahim Mahama is a Ghanaian artist based in Accra and Tamale in Ghana, working with jute sacks, wood, paper, and everyday objects to explore narratives of labour, migration, and global exchange. He founded the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, Red Clay, and Nkrumah Volini in Tamale, significantly contributing to Ghana’s contemporary art scene. His international exhibitions include the Venice Biennale, Documenta 14, Centre Pompidou, and Kunsthalle Wien. He was named 2020 Principal Prince Claus Laureate, served as Artistic Director of the Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts (2023), received the Sam Gilliam Award (2024), and was granted a diplomatic passport by Ghana in 2025. He is currently represented by APALAZZOGALLERY, Italy and White Cube, U.K.
Ibrahim Mahama’s participation is supported by the Kochi Biennale Foundation.
MALVIKA RAJ
Artist and Fashion Designer
Malvika Raj is an Indian artist who approaches Madhubani art as a visual language of resistance. Trained in fashion design at NIIFT, Mohali, Chandigarh she later learned Madhubani techniques from artist Ashok Biswas and Dalit women artisans of Jitwarpur. Her practice uses traditional visual forms of Madhubani to articulate present-day socio-political realities, mounting a sharp critique of class and caste-based discrimination. Drawing on Godna and Kobhar motifs, she reworks the form away from mythic Hindu cosmology toward lived, material experiences. Centering Dalit lifeworlds, Navayana Buddhism, and questions of social justice, her series The Journey and Quantum Journey engage figures such as the Buddha and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Her works are held in the collections of the University of Edinburgh and Patna Museum, and have been widely exhibited.
GABI NGCOBO
Director of Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, NL
Gabi Ngcobo is the Director of Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, NL. Between 2020 and 2023 she was Curatorial Director at the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria. In 2022 Gabi curated The Show is Over at the South London Gallery and co-curated (with Murillo) The ‘t’ is Silent at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenes in Deurle, Belgium. In 2018 she curated the 10th Berlin Biennale titled We Don’t Need Another Hero and was one of the co-curators of the 32nd São Paulo Bienal titled Incenteza Viva (2016). She is a founding member of the Johannesburg-based collaborative platforms NGO – Nothing Gets Organised (2016-) and the Center for Historical Reenactments (2010–14).
Gabi Ngcobo’s participation is supported by the Kochi Biennale Foundation.
PROF. SHIVAJI K PANIKKAR
Art Historian
Prof. Shivaji K Panikkar is an Art Historian specialized in Indian art, both of premodern and modern periods. He has many published books and articles in his name and has taught for over forty years in MS University of Baroda and Ambedkar University Delhi.
MODERATOR
DEEPTHA ACHAR
Professor, Faculty of Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Retd.
Deeptha Achar has just retired as Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Maharaja
Sayajirao University of Baroda, Gujarat. Among the books she has co-edited are Towards New Art History: Studies in Indian Art (2003), and Articulating Resistance: Art and Activism (2012) apart from catalogue essays. Her most recent co-edited volume is Nation, Region, Modernity: The Art of K. Venkatappa (2025). She is the series editor of the Different Tales series, a multilanguage series of illustrated children’s books that thematize marginalized childhoods. She has co-curated an archival show entitled Enlightenment from an Unlikely Envelope: Archives of Adil Jussawalla currently running at the Kerala Museum, Kochi. Her research interests include visual culture studies and childhood studies.
