Generator Cooperative Art Production Fund | Round 2 | September 2020

Akademi Magazine is an India-based collective of writers, designers, artists and thinkers who have come together during a time when the freedom of the press, and of the arts, has never been more of an urgent concern.

Akademi Magazine will use the grant to produce a series of written, visual and audio material expanding on the publication’s work to build a larger political discourse, while acknowledging the unique yet often marginalised positions (and regional realities) of each contributor and their subjects.

Indu Antony is an artist from Kerala based out of Bangalore, India. She often works with ideas questioning societal confinement, identity, gender, public access, collective and suppressed memories. Often politically charged, she engages with mediums to create social impact.

Indu will use the grant to create ‘Directory of the Outsiders’, an artist book depicting the erasure of people’s stories.

Kush Kukreja is an artist based in Delhi, India. His work explores the critical, technological, and ideological structures that surround the way we produce and perceive photographyt.

Kush will use the grant to create work around the Yamuna River in Delhi, attempting to critically look at the act of photography.

Lavkant Chaudhary is from Sarlahi, Nepal, and is based in Kathmandu. His art addresses issues related to the history, society, and politics of the Tarai region; particularly as it concerns the indigenous Tharu peoples and their struggle for rights and recognition. He completed his BFA from Lalit Kala Campus in 2015 and is currently pursuing an MFA from Tribhuvan University. He is also a member of the collective Artree Nepal.

Lavkant will use the grant to develop his project around this history and resistance of the indigenous Tharu community who lives in Terai, their ancient settlement along the southern foothills of Himalaya working as land-breakers and farmers.

Mohit Shelare investigates the body, thinking through epistemology, embodiment productions, and mechanism of exclusions. He centers his practice on performance and problematizes the performance with mediations of hybrid media. Mohit’s focus is on developing a performative research that quantifies the body with ideology.

Mohit will use the grant to further his ongoing project ‘Xeno-Knowing’, an investigation between human and animal relationship surrounded by biology, identity structures, and anthropocentrism.

Prasanta Ghosh completed his Masters from MSU Baroda in 2016 and is practicing in Kolkata. He has received an award in the New Media category at the 50th Annual Exhibition of Birla Academy of Art and Culture, 2017. He has participated at CIMA Award Show 2015 and National Exhibition in Lalit Kala Academy in 2018.

Prasanta will use the grant to create photographs that relook and engage with a changing landscape of his hometown through the character, nature and people working there who are witness to the change.

Priya Sen has a malleable and formal practice with video and sound, and likes to play with narrative modes within the potentials of realist documentary. Her films have been presented at the Flaherty Film Seminar 2019, among festivals and venues that include The Kitchen NYC, BFI London Film Festival, Berlinale, and Dharamshala International Film Festival.

Priya will use the grant for an experimental documentary using collage and assemblage; with photographs, text, reconstructed “dream” visualisations, archival material, and live action. This film will be situated within the new realities presented to us by authoritarianism and illness.

Rajat Dey, a Kolkata based photographer, has been working on a project based on his home and his lost roots that were based in Bangladesh, erstwhile East Pakistan. He attended the Angkor Photo Festival Workshops in 2019 under the mentorship of Katrin Koenning and Sadia Marium.

Rajat will use the grant to create a zine about his family history, his home and the changes they are experiencing at present.

Savyasachi Anju Prabir records videos, sounds and images. He is primarily interested in the mundane and its reflections on the lives of people across generations and cultures.

Savyasachi will use the grant to create an image-based project which is a reconstruction of his grandmother’s home that is lost in time and dispersed across many places.

Shivangi Ladha received her MA in Printmaking from the Royal College of Art, London in 2016. Her works have been exhibited internationally. Shivangi’s work has been published in Printmaking Today London, Art in Print Journal, USA; Art Soul Life Magazine, India; and Platform Magazine, India.

Shivangi proposes to use the grant for her project ‘Becoming Tree II’, a series of large-scale prints in screen-print & etching, inspired by her visit to the village Pilantri in Rajasthan, which plants 111 trees for every girl child born

Zahra Yazdani (Tehran/Delhi) and Ashish Sahoo (Delhi) started their collaboration in March 2020, exploring ways of building conversation and collaboration between artists’ communities keeping lensbased media as their core media of choice. Recently they are aiming to expand their collaboration under the name of Maze collective.

Zahra and Ashish will use the grant to develop ‘Blink’, a web and app-based game for participants to explore how one can position themselves in relation to information to create meaningful interactions.