Ali Akbar Mehta
I create immersive cyber archives that map narratives of history, memory, and identity through a multifocal lens of violence, conflict, and trauma. Such archival mappings – as drawings, paintings, new media works, net-based projects, poems, essays, and theoretical texts, as well as performances both of bodies and networks – are rooted in datafeminist, posthumanist critical theories of making visible hegemonic power relations and silenced historical materialism. My ongoing doctoral research ‘Practicing Online Performativity: Constructing Politically Conscious Archives for the Future’, is interested in exploring the performative relations between online archives and its users through mediated interventions of Second Order Cybernetics, to create speculative knowledge systems that outline new political public spheres.
My work as performances, installations, and talks have been exhibited in galleries and alternative spaces in Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Helsinki, Tampere, Pori, Venice, Nova Gorica, Vienna, Fiskars, Turku, and Jyväskylä. Several of my projects, such as 256 Million Colours of Violence, Outsiders at Work, Ballad of the Lost Utopian Meadow, and Central Park Archives, exist as permanent ongoing online archives.
I am a co-founder and co-Artistic Director (2018-2020) of Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki, an anti-racist queer feminist cultural center, a board member of Kiila ry, and pursuing my Doctoral Research in the Contemporary Art Department at Aalto University, Helsinki. I hold a BFA (Drawing & Painting) from Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, and an MA (Visual Culture, Curating, and Contemporary Art) from Aalto University, Helsinki.
- Central Park Archives
- Ballad of the Lost Utopian Meadow
- WAR • ROOM • ECHO: Regarding the Pain of Other Cyborgs
- Outsiders at Work
- Cyber Archive
- Purgatory Edit
- Museum of Impossible Forms
- 256 Million Colours of Violence
- Contemporary Ruins of Kruunuvuori
- SOAK
- Pudding Manifesto for Togetherness
- TRINITY: Godrej Legacy Park Silos
- SITE : STAGE : STRUCTURE
- The Superhero Series
- Luminous Matter
- Ballad of the War that Never Was, and Other Basterdised Myths
- To Whomsoever it May Concern
- Maunula Speaks
- Is the representation of violence also violent?
- (Un)Becoming Finnish
- Placebo Singers
- Tasher Desh
- The League of Superheroes
- Planktonian People
- Unselfed Extended
- We are such stuff As dreams are made on
- Purgatory
- We are such stuff As dreams are made on
- Rebirth
- Goodbye Blue Sky
- Inhale / Exhale
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Narrating WAR, New Performance Turku, Festival 2020: Mobilities
Performance by Ali Akbar Mehta with varialambo -
Glitchverse
Souja/Shelter Festival 2020, (online) -
Narrating WAR, Mymmälä2, Helsinki
Performance Reading by Ali Akbar Mehta -
direct contact // feedback
w/ Vidha Saumya, Pixelache Festival 2019: Breaking the Fourth wall, Helsinki -
Narrating War, Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki
curated by Vishnu Vardhani as part of Performance LAB VII -
Narrating War, Experimental Event VI – La Torre de Babel, Pori
curated by Anna Jensen and Andrea Coyotzi Borja, Valimo Hall of Palmgren Conservatory - Narrating War, Carinarnica, Nova Gorcia
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Cyborg Archives: GarbageInGarbageOut, TIFA Working Studios, Pune
Performance directed by Ali Akbar Mehta, and performed by Luv Mehtani -
Cyborg Archives: Can Archives Speak?
Performance directed by Ali Akbar Mehta and performed by Ganesh Totekar -
Congratulations, the Space is invaded: Now What?
part of Space Invaders VI, curated by Anna Jensen and Elisa Suvanto, Helsinki -
Narrating War, Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki
curated by Heidi Hänninen - Narrating War, Clark House, Mumbai
- Narrating War, Pispala, Tampere
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Narrating War, Kallio Public Library, Helsinki
part of Chimurenga Collective's 'The Pan African Space Station', curated by Ahmed Al-Nawas -
Play the Space, Stupid!
Performance in Collaboration with Gabriela Gazova, Parsa Khamehkosh, Ragnar Rael, and Saša Nemec
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CreaTures: Panel Discussion on Creative Practices for Transformational Futures
Aalto University, Helsinki, FI (online) -
Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 2 Readings with Annet Dekker, and Susanna Ånäs and Ali Akbar Mehta
Rehearsing Hospitalities, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Helsinki (online) -
Central Park Archives - workshops
organised as part of residency w/ M-Cult at Maunula House, Helsinki -
Violence in Finnish Society: In conversation with Arvind Ramachandran
Myymälä2, Helsinki -
Towards a New Internet: In conversation with Palash Mukhopadhyay
Myymälä2, Helsinki -
Is there a room with just a colour? In conversation with Camelo Ramiro
Myymälä2, Helsinki -
Digital Creativity and Entanglement: In conversation with Timo Tuhkanen
Myymälä2, Helsinki - Notes for Radical Diversity, HAM Helsinki
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Resistance and Reimagining Alternatives
Nordic Decolonial Workshop, Center for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism, (CEREN), University of Helsinki, Helsinki -
Notes for Radical Diversity
Helsinki Art Museum (HAM), Helsinki -
Re-Musing the Museum: Part II
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, 2018 -
Maunula Remix
mcult, Maunula House, 2018 -
Cyber Archives
Die Schule der Archaeutopie in conversation with Ali Akbar Mehta, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, Vienna, 2018 -
Archiving: Histories in the Present
Guest Lecture, Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art (ViCCA), Aalto University, Helsinki -
Decolonial Dreaming, Urbanapa 2017
curated by Sonya Lindfors, Ateneum Museum, Helsinki, 2017 -
Limitations of Liability, Piramal Art Foundation
in conversation with Kevin Lobo, Piramal Museum, Mumbai - Memory and the Maximum City
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FOLKARCHIVE: Ali Akbar Mehta
in Conversation with Sumesh Sharma, moderated by Latika Gupta, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum
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Is there a room with just a colour?
Myymälä2, Helsinki - Limitations of Liability
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256 Million Colours of Violence
Third Space, Helsinki -
TRINITY: Godrej Legacy Park silos
Godrej ONE, Vikhroli, Mumbai -
SITE : STAGE : STRUCTURE
Clark House, Mumbai -
Of Men and Supermen
India Art Festival, by TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2012 - Ballad of the War that Never Was, and Other Basterdised Myths, TAO Art Gallery
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The Meadow
Onoma Summer Exhibition 2020, curated by Taru Elfving, Fiskars Village -
Central Park Archives sound walk
launch of the prototybe interface -
A Tapestry of Time
TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai -
Making Space
curated by Saloni Doshi, Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai -
No Corners
TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai -
Assembly of Access
TIFA Working Studios, 2018 -
OUT2
Research Pavilion: The Utopia of Access, Venice Biennale, Venice -
Partizaning Maunula
Maunulatalo, Maunula, Helsinki -
IS/NOT: Sculpture for the Post-Truth Era
Aalto University Learning Centre, Helsinki -
Ateria/ The Meal
URB 2017 + Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki, 2017 -
Space Invaders IV: Heterotopia
Espoo, 2016 -
SOAK, Illusia
Kalasatama, Helsinki -
Whose History is it Anyway?*
Aalto University, 2016 -
Immersion 2016
Former ADD LAB Space, Aalto University, Espoo -
Tagore Lost and Found
Curated by Bina Sarkar Ellias, IndiaBulls Art Gallery and Auction House, New Delhi -
Small is Beautiful – II
TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai -
Beyond the Canvas
Curated by Kalpana Shah and Sapna Kar, TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, -
Equilibrium
TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai -
Small is Beautiful
TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai -
April Salon
Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai -
Three New Voices: Dimensions in Time & Space
Art Heritage, New Delhi -
Celebrating India
Treo Foundation
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Walkin the Portal
Curated by Vivek Chockalingam and Marialaura Ghidini, Walkin Studios, Bangalore. - Cyber Archive: Questions
- Narrating War
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The Inescapable Manifest Destiny of the Artworld Culture: Defining Art through the state of the Artworld today
Essay by Ali Akbar Mehta (unpublished) -
SOAK is a mixed use world
Curatorial Text by Ali Akbar Mehta -
Proposal for Pudding Manifesto
Project Proposal by Ali Akbar Mehta -
Proposal for Contemporary Ruins of Kruunuvuori
Project Proposal by Ali Akbar Mehta -
TRINITY: Past, Present, and Future
Artist Statement by Ali Akbar Mehta and Vidha Saumya -
Perfect Ghosts
A brief historical record of the Kruunuvuori Villas, by Ali Akbar Mehta - Why is an archive of wars required?
- Foreword: Artist's Note
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The Possibility of Alienation
Exhibition Essay by Sumesh Sharma – co-curator, Clark House Initiative, Mumbai -
SITE : STAGE : STRUCTURE
Artist Statement by Ali Akbar Mehta -
Somewhere between Science and Subjectivity
Interview by Rahul D'Souza -
Not on Noah’s Ark, but on the Raft of the Medusa
Essay by Ranjit Hoskote, Mumbai, 2011 -
In A Liminal Age
Interview by Rahul D'Souza -
Comprehending Violence
Review by Abhishek Bandekar -
Transforming Myth
Artist Statement, 2010 -
An Ode to Erkki Kurenniemi
Essay by Ali Akbar Mehta -
On Superheroes and Science fiction
Essay by Ali Akbar Mehta (unpublished)
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The Shape of Museums to Come
in 'The Museum of the Future. 43 New Contributions to the Discussion about the Future of the Museum', (ed.) Nora Sternfeld, (pub.) schnittpunkt and Joachim Baur -
SAFE{R}: Evolving the Conditions for Collaboration
in 'Six years in the Third Space', Third Space, Helsinki (published online) -
Museum of Impossible Forms: Voicing the Margins
in 'Marginaaleista museoihin'. (From Margins to Museums), (eds.) Rastas, Anna & Koivunen, Leila, (trans.) Nurmenniemi, Jenni, Tampere: Vastapaino, FI -
Who is Welcome? – Thinking Hospitality as Museum of Impossible Forms
Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 2, (ed.) Yvonne Billimore and Jussi Koitela, (pub.) Archive Books, Berlin, in collaboration with Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Helsinki, FI -
A Cyber Archive of Questions
in 'cohabitant/mutants', Restricted Fixations, issue 01, edited by Renuka Rajiv, independant publication -
Saša Nemec: My Teenage Angst Never Faded, I Am Still Rebelling
Interview by OUTSIDERS AT WORK -
Abhinit Khanna : Make Memes not War
Interview by OUTSIDERS AT WORK -
Tuike and Simo Alitalo: All Ears are Equal
Interview by OUTSIDERS AT WORK -
To Not Wait for the Archive: Home and Labour mired in the complications of Invisibalisation
Home Issue, Visual Culture and Contemporary Art Journal #5, (ed.) Saara Mahbouba, Paola Jallili and Else Lagerspetz, published by Aalto University, Helsinki 2019 -
Atlas of Lost Beliefs (for Insurgents, Citizens, & Untitled Bodies)
Curatorial text by Ali Akbar Mehta, Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki -
FOOD and Other Practices at the Arthouse
Visual Culture and Contemporary Art Journal #4, (ed.) Ali Akbar Mehta and Vidha Saumya, Published by Aalto University, Espoo, 2018 -
Cyber Archive: Being and Doing Knowledge
MA thesis, Aalto University, 2018 -
Cyber Archive: Archiving as a sustainable counter-hegemonic practice
Hakara Journal, (ed.) Ashutosh Poddar and Noopur Desai, 2018 -
Colours of Violence, AROOP III - Totems and Taboos
(ed.) Nancy Adajania, published by Raza Foundation, New Delhi, 2018 -
The Photons of Politics: Footnotes for a New History
RAB-RAB Journal for Political and Formal Inquiries in Art, (ed.) Sezgin Boynik, 2017 -
Locating: The Museum of Impossible Forms
Kone Foundation Boldness Blog, 2017 -
Border Crossing: Reshaping the Agency of Struggle
Interview with Ranjit Hoskote, CuMMA Papers Publication Series, (ed.) Nora Sternfeld, 2017 -
No one at the ceremony remembers to mention the artist
Essay for Vidha Saumya’s exhibition 'No one at the ceremony remembers to mention the artist', Third Space, 2015 - Poems
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A Body Split in Two
International Gallerie, Journal of Contemporary art, issue 30, (ed.) Bina Sarkar Ellias, Mumbai
- Mehta & Ånäs: Keskuspuisto-arkistot
- Collecting Art in Archives: In Conversation with Ali Akbar Mehta
- In Conversation with Ali Akbar Mehta
- Not your Regular Archive
- What is the colour of violence?
- Shades of Violence
- Does violence have a colour?
- The Spaces Are Alive
- The BB Art Showcase: Ali Akbar Mehta
- Memory & the Maximum City
- Chinese Fortunes and other Mumbai Memories
- The Possibility Of Alienation – Ali Akbar Mehta
- Site Specific
- Odes and Inquisitions: Sino-Indian Connections in Recent Indian Art
- Interview
- Ali Akbar Mehta in conversation with Namrata Bhawnani
- Visual Disobedience
- Luminous Matter Press Kit
- Nothing is Mundane