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*.
*Saura (also known as Soura or Sora) is recognised as one of the oldest Indigenous languages of the Indian subcontinent
THEMATIC PREMISE
For biennales, triennales, festivals, and even once-in-five-year showcases like Documenta, the art world has long relied on such touchpoints as culture-making systems—often shaped by a Western gaze that is now undergoing processes of de-centering and decolonisation. For artists, makers, and creators, these platforms are not only opportunities for visibility but also systems that ensure history records what commerce cannot. Yet, more often than not, the very capitalist entities that support these platforms are often the ones being critiqued by the art-makers on display in these spaces. This creates an inherent tension: within this culture-making activity, commerce imposes specific restrictions that force difficult curatorial choices and potential conflicts of interest. Curators, therefore, tell us their biggest challenge today—the relationship between financial infrastructures that makes these touchpoints in art happen—and showcasing the very art-maker that holds these financial infrastructures accountable?
SPEAKERS
AINDREA EMELIFE
Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of West African Art (MOWAA)
Curator, Nigerian Pavilion, 2024 Venice Biennale
Aindrea Emelife is a Nigerian-British curator and art historian specializing in modern and contemporary art, with focus on colonial/decolonial histories, transnationalism, and representation politics. Currently Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), she curated Nigeria’s Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Notable exhibitions include BLACK VENUS at Fotografiska NY, touring to MOAD San Francisco and Somerset House London (2023). Her book A Brief History of Protest Art was published by Tate (2022). Appointed to London Mayor’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm (2021), Emelife holds degrees from The Courtauld Institute of Art and contributes to major publications including Revising Modern British Art.
Aindrea Emelife’s participation is generously supported by the British Council India.
NATASHA GINWALA
Artistic Director, COLOMBOSCOPE
Natasha Ginwala is Artistic Director of COLOMBOSCOPE, Colombo (since 2019), an interdisciplinary arts festival instrumental in developing Sri Lanka’s contemporary art scene and curator of Current V: Ancestral Ocean at TBA-21 Academy (2026-08). She previously served as Associate Curator at Large at Gropius Bau, Berlin (2018-2024) and was Artistic Director of the 13th Gwangju Biennale (2021) with Defne Ayas. She has been part of curatorial teams for documenta 14 (2017), Contour Biennale 8 (2017), 8th Berlin Biennale (2014), and 8th Taipei Biennial (2012). She co-curated exhibitions at major institutions including Hamburger Bahnhof, Venice Biennale, and Sharjah Art Foundation. A widely published author, she writes on contemporary art, visual culture, and social justice.
MARIO D’SOUZA
Curator and Writer
Director of Programmes, Kochi Biennale Foundation
Curatorial Team, Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Mario D’Souza is a curator, writer and the Director of Programmes at the Kochi Biennale Foundation and on the curatorial team for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. He is also co-Artistic Director at HH Art Spaces Goa. He was formerly curator at Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi and led Asia Assemble (2017). Recent curatorial projects include Antibodies with HH Art Spaces, The Tetley Museum, the Tate, supported by the British Council. D’Souza co-convened Fugitive Forms: Performance Art in South Asia at the Tate Hyundai Research Centre with Sook-Kyung Lee, Devika Singh and Nikhil Chopra in 2022; was a contributing curator for TBA 21 on st_age in 2022-23; and was awarded the Jane Farver Memorial Residency in 2024 at ISCP New York.
THIAGO DE PAULA SOUZA
Co-curator, 36th Bienal de São Paulo
Thiago de Paula Souza is a member of the curatorial team for the 36th Bienal de São Paulo. He is interested in expanding the notion of the exhibition formats and in artistic practices that explore transmutation, whether through eroticism, gender nonconformity and modes of intimacy, as well as through the transformation of organic matter, spiritual trance, or aesthetics influenced by hybridity between species. He believes those practices might contribute to rethinking more balanced forms of coexistence between humanity and the other beings. His curatorial activity spans across the world having worked as a co-curator on projects in Brazil, Netherlands, United States, Germany and Hong Kong. de Paula Souza is a PhD candidate in the arts program at HDK Valand – University of Gothenburg, Sweden. His academic inquiries are mostly built on from his curatorial work.
Thiago de Paula Souza’s participation is generously supported by the Kochi Biennale Foundation.
DR. JILDA ANDREWS
Yuwaalaraay Cultural Practitioner, Museum Ethnographer
Deputy Director, First Nations, National Museum of Australia
Dr. Jilda Andrews is a Yuwaalaraay cultural practitioner and Deputy Director, First Nations at the National Museum of Australia. Her work redefines custodianship beyond object preservation to actively maintain connections between cultural material and the dynamic systems that produce them. A museum ethnographer with a PhD from The Australian National University, Dr. Andrews has worked extensively across galleries, libraries, archives, and museums in audience engagement and gallery development. She draws from her heritage to recognize cultural ecologies surrounding museum collections, applying Indigenous philosophical concepts like relationality and cyclical time to contemporary museum practice. Dr. Andrews serves on advisory councils internationally and was Futurist in Residence at the University of South Australia (2024). Jilda’s leadership has been recognised in her appointment by the British Council and Australia Council for the Arts’ Accelerate Program alongside her research and advocacy work.
Dr. Jilda Andrew’s participation is generously supported by the Australian High Commission in India.
MODERATOR
SHALEEN WADHWANA
Independent Curator & Researcher
Co-Curator, Indian Ocean Craft Triennal, Western Australia, 2027
Shaleen Wadhwana is an independent award-winning arts researcher, and curator based in India. Her academic research on decolonising museum pedagogy has been showcased through The Unfiltered History Tour by Vice World News UK at the British Museum, London, bagging 12 awards at the Cannes Lions Festival (France) – a first for India. She is the curatorial mentor and co-creator of the IMMERSE artist and curator residency fellowship program, and represents South Asia at the Asia Advisory Committee at KADIST. Currently, she is the Co-Curator for the Indian Ocean Craft Triennal, Australia, 2025-2027, was awarded a travel grant for CIMAM 2025, and is curating an exhibition about South Asian territorial histories which opens this year.
