Curriculum vitae

Ali Akbar Mehta (b.1983, Mumbai) is a Transmedia artist, curator, and researcher.

https://www.aliakbarmehta.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0098-4631
studio@aliakbarmehta.com

Education and Select Work Experience

2019 – ongoing
Doctoral Researcher, Contemporary Art, Aalto University, School of Art, Design & Architecture, Helsinki, FI
2019
Artistic Producer, m-cult Media Culture Centre, Helsinki, FI
2018 – 2020
Artistic Director, Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki, FI
2015 – 2018
MA (Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art), Aalto University, Helsinki, FI
2002 – 2008
Co-founder, Lead Animator and Artist, Mareech Animated Design, Mumbai, IN
2001 – 2005
BFA (Honours), Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, IN
1998
GNIIT, National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), Mumbai, IN

Research Funding and Grants

2025
Travel grant, Finnish Insitute in the UK and Ireland - London, purgatory EDIT
2025
Production grant, Slovenian Ministry of Culture, purgatory EDIT
2025
Travel grant, Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan - Mumbai, purgatory EDIT
2025
Travel grant, Finnish Institut - Berlin, purgatory EDIT
2024
production grant, Taiteen edistämiskeskus Globus Op Start, working group – Artists with Evidence
2024
exhibition grant, Kone Säätiö, working group – Haihatuksen Henki ry
2023
working & production grant, Kone Säätiö, Borderlander(s) (3 years)
2022
working grant, Taiteen edistämiskeskus, purgatory EDIT (1 year)
2021
operational grant, working grant, Taiteen edistämiskeskus, WAR ROOM ECHO (1 year)
2021
operational grant, Helsinki City Grant, working group Museum of Impossible Forms
2020
operational grant, Kone Säätiö, COVID grant for organisations, working group Museum of Impossible Forms
2020
project grant, Taiteen edistämiskeskus, working group – Museum of Impossible Forms
2018
operational grant, Kone Säätiö, working group – Museum of Impossible Forms, (2 years)
2018
project grant, Suomen Kulttuurirahasto, working group – Museum of Impossible Forms
2017
project grant, Aalto University, 256 Million Colours of Violence
2016
operational grant, Kone Säätiö, working group – Museum of Impossible Forms, (2 years)

Awards

2020
State Art Prize (awarded for Museum of Impossible Forms), the Ministry of Art and Culture, FI
2019
Tutkijaliitto-palkinto, (awarded for Museum of Impossible Forms), the Finnish Association of Researchers, FI
2005
Palsikar Award for Portraiture, Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, IN

Residencies and Research Fellowships

2025
Artist-in-Residence: science_technology_society season 3, Delfina Foundation, London, UK
2024
Research Fellow: After School part II, CAD+SR, Nairobi, KE
2024
A-i-R: European Media Art Platform (EMAP), Werklietz, Halle, DE
2023-24
Research Fellow: After School part I, CAD+SR, Tire, TU
2023
Research fellow: Technologies of Critical Conscientization, Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research together with Casa do Povo, São Paolo, BR
2022
Research fellow: Commonplaces and Entanglements VII, Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research, Spoleto, IT
2021
A-i-R: Titanik Artist Residency, Turku, FI
2020
A-i-R: Maunula Commons, m-cult, Helsinki, FI
2018
A-i-R: To Participate in the Archive, ARTEL 2018, TIFA Working Studios, Pune, IN
2012
A-i-R: SPACE 118, Mumbai, IN

Upcoming Exhibitions

solo
Purgatory EDIT: Liberation Archives for the Cyborgs of Now, Project 88, Mumbai, IN
group
Who Goes Hunting Does Not Cough, (cur.) Kisito Assangni, Pixelache Festival 2026, Helsinki, FI
group
Group Exhibition (name TBC), (cur.) Emilia Laine, TaideMuseo ARTSI, Vaanta, FI
group
Group Exhibition (name TBC), (cur.) Sisipho Ngodwana, Stevenson, Cape Town, SA

Solo Exhibitions

2024
Purgatory EDIT: Liberation Archives for the Cyborgs of Now, transmediale studio X silent green, Berlin, DE
2020
Is there a room with just a colour?, Myymälä2, Helsinki, FI
2017
Limitations of Liability, Mumbai Assembly and Harkat Studios, Mumbai, IN
2016
256 Million Colours of Violence, Third Space, Helsinki, FI
2014
SITE: STAGE: STRUCTURE, Clark House Initiative, Mumbai, IN
2012
Of Men and Supermen, India Art Festival, presented by TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2011
The Ballad of The War that Never Was, and other Bastardised Myths, TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN

Performance

2023
Conflictorium, ETMU Days 2023, Jyväskylä University, Jyväskylä, FI
2022
Narrating WAR, Maunulatalo, Helsinki, FI
2021
Ballad of the Lost Utopian Meadow, a series of 3 performances in collaboration with Vidha Saumya, varialambo, and Joss Allen, as part of Aikakoneita Ja Utopiotia: kotinpaluu, kaukokaipuu, Elinehtoja (Time Machine and Utopias: Wanderlust, Lifelines, Homecoming), curated by Hanna Johansson, Ainola Museum, Visavuori Museum, and Tarvaspää Museum, FI
2021
Narrating WAR / Habitat 1, 4 performances in collaboration w/ varialambo, in ‘Reciprocities’, curated by Christine Langinauer, Vantaa Art Museum ARTSI, Vantaa, FI
2020
Narrating WAR, MOBILITIES, curated by Leena Kela, New Performance Festival, Turku, FI
2020
Glitchverse, Souja/Shelter Festival 2020, curated by Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, Ksenia Yurkova, Anastasia Vepreva, Helsinki (online)
2019
Narrating WAR, Relational Figures, Myymälä2, Helsinki, FI
2019
direct-contact// feedback, w/ Vidha Saumya, Pixelache Festival 2019: Breaking the fifth Wall, Helsinki, FI
2018
Narrating WAR, Experimental Event VI – La Torre de Babel, curated by Anna Jensen and Andrea Coyotzi Borja, Valimo Hall of Palmgren Conservatory, Pori, FI
2018
Narrating WAR, Carincarina, Nova Gorica, SL
2018
Narrating WAR, Performance LAB VII, curated by Vishnu Vardhani Rajan, Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki, FI
2018
Cyborg Archives: GarbageInGarbageOut, TIFA Working Studios, Pune, IN
2018
Cyborg Archives: Can Archives Speak?, TIFA Working Studios, Pune, IN
2018
Narrating WAR, TIFA Working Studios, Pune, IN
2017
Narrating WAR, Memory of War, curated by Heidi Hänninen, Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki, FI
2017
Narrating WAR, Clark House, Mumbai, IN
2016
Where does poetry nest?, curated by Giovanna Esposito Yussif, Pispala Memorial, Tampere, IN
2016
null.void, for Chimurenga: Pan-African Space Station, curated by Ahmed Al-Nawas, Kallio Public Library, Helsinki, IN

Select Group Exhibitions

2025
Digital Intimacies, Late at Tate Britain X HERVISIONS, Tate Britain, London, UK
2025
The Art of Confluence, House of Creativity, Mumbai, IN
2025
(near) near – but far, transmediale festival, 2025, Berlin, DE
2025
UnNatural Encounters, European Media Art Platform X silent green, Berlin, DE
2024
Contestations.ai, Symposium on AI, Human Rights and Warfare, Aalto University, FI
2024
How We Are (Un)Becoming, The 7th International Death Online Research Symposium, ‘Digital Death – Transforming History, Rituals, And Afterlife’, Helsinki University, FI
2024
Meander, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2023
Cruel Radiance, curated by Harri Palviranta and Marko Karo, Backlight Festival 2023, Gallery Saskia, Photographic Center Nykyakia, Gallery Koppelo, Tampere art Museum, Tampere, FI
2022
Abdication of the Geniuses Festival, Oksasenkatu 11 + Maunulatalo, Helsinki, FI
2022
Into the Void, curated by Farbod Fakharzadeh, for Ars Pori, Pori, FI
2022
Locus of Control, curated by Abhinit Khanna and Anoushkaa Bhatnagar, for House of Creativity, Mumbai, IN
2021
Data Vitality: Soft infrastructures and Economies of Knowledge, Aalto University, Helsinki, FI
2021
Reboot Me Softly ↻, 19th edition of Piksel Festival 2021, Bergen, NO
2021
Central Park Archives, produced by m-cult, Maunulatalo, Helsinki, FI
2021
Aikakoneita Ja Utopiotia: kotinpaluu, kaukokaipuu, Elinehtoja (Time Machine and Utopias: Wanderlust, Lifelines, Homecoming), curated by Hanna Johansson, Ainola Museum, Visavuori Museum, and Tarvaspää Museum, FI
2021
To Err is Human, curated by Anna Ruth, Mänttä Kuvataideviikot, Mänttä, FI
2021
Reciprocities, curated by Christine Langinauer, Vantaa Art Museum ARTSI, Vantaa, FI
2020
Meadow, curated by Taru Elfving, Fiskars Village, FI
2020
A Tapestry of Time, TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2019
Making Space, curated by Saloni Doshi, Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2018
No Corners, TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2018
Assembly of Access, TIFA, Pune, IN
2017
Partizaning Maunula, Maunulatalo, Maunula, Helsinki, FI
2017
OUT 2, Research Pavilion: The Utopia of Access, Venice Biennale, Venice, IT
2017
Ateria/The Meal, URB 2017 + Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki, FI
2017
IS/NOT: Sculpture for the Post-Truth Era, Aalto University Learning Centre, Helsinki, FI
2016
Immersion 2016, Aalto University, Espoo, FI
2016
Where Does Poetry Nest?, curated by Giovanna Esposito Yussif, Galleria Emil, Tampere, FI
2016
Space Invaders IV: Heterotopia, Espoo, FI
2016
SOAK, D/func.t, Helsinki, FI
2016
*Whose History is it anyway?, Aalto University, Espoo, FI
2015
Cisspace: Construct(ed.), Otaniemi Recycling Center, Espoo, FI
2014
Infinite, TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2013
Small is Beautiful – II, TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2013
Beyond the Canvas, ­curated by Kalpana Shah and Sapna Kar, TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2013
Tagore Lost and Found, curated by Bina Sarkar Ellias, IndiaBulls Art Gallery and Auction House, New Delhi, IN
2013
Equilibrium, TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2012
Synergy, TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2012
Small is Beautiful, TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2010
Three New Voices: Dimensions in Time & Space, Art Heritage, New Delhi, IN
2010
April Salon, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, IN
2010
Evolve, TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai, IN
2009
Gems of India, Unicorn Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2009
India on Canvas, charity auction, New Delhi, IN
2008
The Kohinoor Selection, Unicorn Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2008
Art for Justice and Peace, Sabrang, Mumbai, IN
2008
Art Smart, Mumbai, and Delhi, IN
2007
India on Canvas, charity auction, Mumbai, IN
2007
Celebrating India, Treo Foundation, Delhi-Calcutta-Bangalore-Mumbai-New York

Curatorial Work

2024-26
Curatorial advisor: Southnord ArtFest, Helsinki-Stockholm, FI/SE

Invited to be part of an advisory team for Stockholm-based Southnord artist-run platforms and curatorial initiative to consult on methods for developing its 2 nd iteration of the Artfest in Helsinki. Provided cultural and curatorial support via a 2-day intensive workshop to outline Finnish and Finland-based artists, practitioners, and organisations for contribution and collaboration.

Currently, the Artfest is scheduled to open from October 2026 to March 2027 at Amos Rex, with the Museum of Impossible Forms, publics, and more, as collaborative partners.

2024
Co-curator: HAIHATUS25, Haihatus Art Center, Joutsa, Finland

Curated exhibition of 25 artists, including works by Shueng Yiu (video essay and 3D printed wax sculptures), Bruno Moreschi and Bernardo Fontes (photographs developed through collaboration with HITS, critiquing LLMs and Image recognition technologies), Jos Allen (autoethnographic sound piece tracing histories of Rye), Adnan Mirza (VR experience exploring themes of migration and belonging). Engaging works in multiple media, including painting, sculpture, VR, photography, printmaking, data systems, and film.

Provoked and facilitated critical, timely conversations centred on the intersections of identity, self-image, equality, systemic, structural racial injustice, and discrimination based on ethnicity, class, religion, sexual orientation, and gender.

2023
Project curator: Agonistic Intelligence/s (or another AI/s), Summer school in collaboration with Museum of Impossible Forms (MIF) and Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) for Helsinki Biennale 2023: New Directions May Emerge, Helsinki, FI

Conceived, produced, and led the summer school by assembling a working group of provocateurs, artists, and cultural workers that explored the Biennale themes of ‘contamination, regeneration, and agency’ through the lens of the HAM art collection.

Designed an intensive 6-day curriculum to bridge the gap between Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) workers and the leadership of several grassroots-level organisations; to remember and formulate technologies that centre the building of anticolonial, antipatriarchal, anticaste, and antifascist practices and futures. Mobilised provocateurs and cultural workers to formulate anticolonial methodologies through participatory workshops, developed operational and public-oriented strategies through written and performed manifestos; led the team to foster new approaches to archival practice, decolonial thinking, and AI’s societal impacts through participatory art-making; invited and coordinated with guest curators and theorists to conduct public-facing lectures and workshops, and engaged 1,200 publics.

Public Lecture I: Deschooling Art and Its Archives, Dalida Benfield and Christopher Bratton

Public Lecture II: Who are Museums for? On Goeers and Absentees, Sinthujan Varatharajah

Public Lecture III: Politics of Access within Archives as Artistic Praxis, Annet Dekker

2023
Co-curator (via Museum of Impossible Forms): New Directions May Emerge, Helsinki Biennale 2023, curated by Joasia Kysia, Helsinki, FI.

Invited to collectively co-curate The Helsinki Biennial 2023 by lead curator Joasia Kysia. Expanded the Biennale’s curatorial themes of ‘contamination, regeneration, and agency’ to explore issues of environmental damage, political conflict, and the impact of technology – via film, performance, and tech installations, drawing 112,000 visitors and igniting debates on decolonial AI impacts.

As the former director of the Museum of Impossible Forms, I played a crucial role in advocating for the inclusion of accomplished yet marginalised Finland-based artists on the Biennale roster. Worked with artists, HAM’s Biennali team, and technicians to install works of 29 artists and collectives across the venues of Vallisaari Island, the Helsinki Art Museum, city cultural venues Caisa and Stoa, and online.

Approximately 400 Finnish and international critics and visual art professionals explored the biennial during the preview days, including 90+ international press visits, 112 international media content, and 231+ million viewers.

2022
Project curator: Archives as Contemporary Object X, podcast series w/ Party Office b2b Fadescha, documenta fifteen, Kassel, DE

Conceived and produced a 6-part podcast series, running as a regular broadcast through the duration of documenta fifteen.

Moderated the critical discussions with invited speakers – critical thinkers, media theorists, data law and policymakers, social activists, political theorists, art and cultural workers, as well as the moderator/hosts – to examine how data censorship, power/knowledge matrix, and ‘direct, structural, and cultural’ forms of violence affect the way we interface with data and shape our online archives.

The podcast series was lauded as a critical discussion series to investigate the nature of the archival today, and to unpack system issues affecting the world around us, through a multifocal lens of archiving as artistic, curatorial, and research praxis.

Ep 01: History as Tools of the State, Memory as Art of the Stateless, w/ Farbod Fakharzadeh

Ep 02: Memory Work and Inauthentic Archives, w/ Farbod Fakharzadeh

Ep 03: Decolonial Media Aesthetics - part 1, w/ Maria Dalida Benfield

Ep 04: Decolonial Media Aesthetics - part 2, w/ Maria Dalida Benfield

Ep 05: A Museum for A People, w/ Hudda Khaireh

Ep 06: Problematics of Ethnic Museums in the Postcolony, w/ Hudda Khaireh

2022
Curatorial advisor: Queer Time: Kinships and Architectures, Party Office b2b Fadescha, documenta fifteen, Kassel, DE

Invited as an advisor to explore queer affective bonds and their relationship to space and architecture. Supported in exhibition design and installation of the WH22 space to subvert the aestheto-histories of the space to create a trans-BIPOC only dungeon and party space, titled ‘HyperVigilant’, that centred the joy of Trans*, BIPoC, and people with disabilities.

Worked across multiple teams (de-escalation and awareness) as support to emphasise the project’s stated priotisation of rest, pleasure, and collectivity as forms of queer resilience and world-making; promoted via onsite actions to further its values regarding ‘Queer Temporality and Kinship’, ‘Spatial Politics and Architecture’, ‘Resilience and Radical Pleasure’, ‘Marginalized Voices and Collectivity’, ‘Historical and Cultural Context’.

2021
Project curator: How to Work Together? Extended notes on collaboration, part of a collaboration between Museum of Impossible Forms + Platform, in ‘20 Years of Platform Festival’, Vaasa, FI

Produced and hosted the ‘How to Work Together?’ podcast series – a culmination of the first collaboration between PLATFORM X Museum of Impossible Forms.

Through the podcasts, I discussed with invited artists the possibilities and limits of location identity and practice, explored desires of working together, outlined ecologies of collaboration, and established para-institutional community-led praxis as a primary aim and processual goal.

Episode 01 Shubhangi Singh

Episode 02 Zahrah Ehsan

Episode 03 Surabhi Nadig

Episode 04 Vishnu Vardhani Rajan

2021
project curator: Impossible Reader 2020, How to Work Together: Seeking models of solidarity and alliance, (ed.) Aiava, Emily & Aiava, Raine. (pub.) Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki, FI.

Conceived and produced the second edition of the biennial book series published by the Museum of Impossible Forms. Invited 20 writers, theorists, art and cultural workers, and sister organisations of MIF to compile a selection of essays, writings, poems, and artworks on and around the curatorial framework of building collective working practices within the Finnish and International art scenes.

Commissioned editors Raine Aiva and Emily Aiva. Recruited project coordinator Zahrah Ehsan. Supervised the publication’s design and was responsible for the final look, print and fabrication.

2021
Curatorial partner: Gathering for Rehearsing Hospitalities Spring 2021, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Helsinki, FI

Supported with the development of an online and onsite programme by Frame Contemporary Art Finland and co-curators m-cult and Museum of Impossible Forms that took place from April to May 2021.

Developed and curated online conversations, commissioned artworks, and installations exploring themes of access and diverse ways of knowing to connect contemporary art practitioners and foster dialogue on more equitable societies. Contributed to experiments with formats for gathering and hosted opportunities to engage in person or remotely via online dialogues on disability and access.

Commissioned and produced a film by the Burnout Mermaids with MIF co-artistic director Marianne Savallampi and Society of Cinema curator Danai Anagnoustou.

Wrote texts and contributed to the event publication: Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 2.

2021
Seminar organiser: Touching/Transforming, Seminar, Cluster for Critical Artistic Research, Aalto University, FI

Worked as a researcher with the Cluster of Critical Artistic Research working group at Aalto University to examine artistic research methodologies within academia, develop para-institutional pedagogies, and write joint papers within the working group.

The seminar, hosted at HIAP, centred the significant socio-political history in Finland and explored themes of land, care, and critical artistic research, with a keynote lecture by Skolt Sámi theatre director Pauliina Feodoroff on land, colonialism, and art.

2020
Associate curator: In-Between, Helsinki International Artist Program, Helsinki, FI

Invited by HIAP to serve as jury for selecting artists for the 2020 summer residency, with emphasis on providing support to precarious Helsinki-based artists.

Provided curatorial support, feedback to works and ongoing projects, built working relationships, and developed an open studio as a multi-day staggered event to accommodate COVID restrictions on gathering at the time.

2019
Programme facilitator: Network Effects, M-cult, Oodi Library, Helsinki, FI

Leading Museum of Impossible Forms (M{if}) as a key partner, hosted a six-day event that explored hospitality, access, and diverse ways of knowing through talks, performances, and screenings.

Devised and curated ‘A Series of soft gestures towards Hospitality’, a week-long ‘non-performance’ showcasing collaborations between Frame Contemporary Art Finland and Museum of Impossible Forms. Commissioned ‘nynnyt’ (Orlan Ohtonen and Selina Väliheikki), ‘Asematila’, the artist collective ‘Bread Omens’ (Jani Anders Purhonen and Elina Rantasuo), Heidi Hänninen, as well as other guests and participants from Kontula and beyond.

2019
Assistant curator: Network Effects, M-cult, Oodi Library, Helsinki, FI

Assisted M-cult Director Minna Tarkka and curator Heidi Tikka to produce the ‘Network Effects’ exhibition in OODI, Helsinki, to expose and disrupt the dystopic logics of the online world by opening up new pathways for agency and citizenship.

Wrote exhibition text and developed other supporting content; was responsible for artist liaison and installation support for DISNOVATION, Chloé Galibert-Laîné & Kevin B. Lee, Joana Moll, Anna Ridler, and screenings of Sad by Design (Gert Lovink, Institute of Network Cultures), and The Sprawl (Metahaven).

2019
Project curator: Vidisha Fadescha – Party, a tool for Care, Today Is Our Tomorrow Festival, Publics, Helsinki, FI Commissioned and organised a talk by artist-curator Vidisha Fadescha, at the ‘Today is Our Tomorrow Festival’, publics, Helsinki.

In continuation of Fadescha’s talk outlining Party as a Tool for Care, I produced an event where Fadescha’s alter ego, ‘Redrum’, played a Techno set that constructed the idea of a gathering being about solidarity, community, comfort, non-judgment, and consent.

2019
Artistic Producer: M-cult Media Culture Centre, Helsinki, FI Produced the European Media Art Platform residency at M-cult, featuring a French artist-collective called DISNOVATION. Provided support to residency artists by organising public workshops, conducting logistical and administrative tasks, sourcing equipment, and creating safe and convivial working environments.

Worked to develop long-term strategies combining tools of research, activism, and technology for M-cult’s Maunula Residency program.

2018-20
Co-Artistic Director: Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki, FI Conceptualised and developed the curatorial framework ‘The Atlas of Lost Beliefs: For Insurgents, Citizens, & Untitled Bodies’. Managed library/archive, event logistics, daily operations, and finances.

Led teams of project leaders and curators to conceptualise, produce and execute 160+ events, under a designed project portfolios: Society of Cinema, Ubuntu Film Club, Performance LAB, Improv Sessions, MIF Discourse Series, Radical Cross-stitch Workshops, MIF Monthly Dinners, Reading Circle, Entry to Iraniain Music, Summer Schools, Kontula Futures (now Drifts Festival), Rehearsing Hospitalities (as collaborative partner of Frame Contemporary Art Finland), and multiple Special and Hosted events.

Worked with over 500 artists, collectives, and institutional partners in various capacities, in 160+ free public events, attracting over 5600 visitors in 2019 and 2020. Wrote and lectured on MIF and its decolonial, queer-feminist, and norm-critical ethos in multiple academic Journals and publications, such as ‘Marginaaleista museoihin’, ‘Rasismi, valta ja vastarinta’, ‘The Museum of the Future: 43 New Contributions to the Discussion about the Future of the Museum’, ‘Six years in the Third Space’, ‘Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 1’, and ‘Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 2’; and at Conferences and talks, such as ‘Notes for Radical Diversity’ at Helsinki Art Museum (HAM), ‘Resistance and Reimagining Alternatives’ at the Center for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism, (CEREN), University of Helsinki, ‘Creative Practices for Transformational Futures’ and Aalto University, and ‘Re-Musing the Museum: Part II’ at the Kiasma Contemporary art Museum.

Efforts secured the ‘State Art Prize’ awarded by the Ministry of Art and Culture (2020), and the ‘Tutkijaliitto-palkinto’ by the Finnish Association of Researchers (2019).

2017-
Co-founder: Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki, FI Part of a 7-member collective to conceive and develop a proposal for a radically new cultural space to foreground BIPOC, queer-feminist, and critically responsive art and cultural practice, aiming to vitalise the culturally brownfielded neighbourhoods of East Helsinki.

Wrote a 2-year operational plan for securing funding from the Kone Foundation. Subsequently, co-wrote multiple operational and project grants for continued funding from the Kone Foundation, Suomen Kultuurirahaasto, Helsinki City, etc.

Participated in multiple project initialisations, such as the Society for Cinema and the Performance LAB, and hosted 80 events in 2017-2018

2016
Exhibition curator: Material///Immaterial, A Space, Aalto University, Helsinki, FI Curated a 3-month exhibition of 4 artists, accompanied by a rotating series of open studio micro-residencies for MA students in the Visual Cultures and Contemporary Art MA program at Aalto University,  in the newly opened Aalto Fab Lab, then called ‘A-Space’.
2016
Exhibition curator: SOAK, D/func.t, Helsinki, FI Co-curated a group exhibition of 10 artists and collectives on the boat Illusia, temporarily anchored in the Kalasatama bay, as an experimental methodology to create alternate exhibition spaces in Helsinki.

Wrote curatorial text and developed critical strategies to create meeting points (encounters) between artistic practices outside the white cube and outside the institution. This developed frameworks for future curatorial praxes.

Conferences, Artist talks and Panel Discussions

2025
Panelist: Images of War: Technological Violence, Aesthetics & Archive, Aspects of Presence Symposium, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, DE
2025
Keynote Lecture: Shifting perspectives – a historical perspective to struggles and resilience, Stop Hatred Now 2025, Helsinki, FI
2025
Artist Talk: Living in ‘Archival Time’, or at the end of narrative(s), Transmediale 2025 x HKW, Berlin, DE
2024
Artist Talk: Pedagogies of the Unarchived, CAD+SR, Nairobi, KE
2024
Artist Talk: Artists in a changing ecosystem, University of the Arts, Helsinki, FI
2024
Artist Talk: Archiving in the Age of Data, Power and Violence, Arts & Sciences: Telluride 2024, USA
2024
Artist Talk: Countering Archival Fascism: Moving from technopolitical regimes to technodiverse cosmologies, deCYPher lab, BioArt Society, Helsinki, FI
2024
Panellist: Where to start when everything is urgent – intersectionalities, priorities and empathy, Stop Hatred Now! Festival, UrbanApa, Helsinki (online)
2024
Discussion Series: Ec(h)o Effect: Conversations on War and Environment, with Colin Greer & Ines Montavlao (mod.), Artists with Evidence (online)

Conversation #1: From Urgency to Possibility

Conversation #2: Resilience Narratives: Solutions for a War-torn Environment

Conversation #3: Transformative Potential in War and Environmental Crisis

Conversation #4: Artistic Narratives of Environmental Consequences in Warfare

Conversation #5: Art+Science as a Catalyst for Change

Conversation #6: Circular Economies, Coping Strategies, and Artistic Responses to Conflict

2023
Keynote lecture: Curating Across Cultures, ARTIVAL RE:CONNECT, Globe Art Point, FI
2023
Panel Moderator: Collective and community-based art practices and their political potential, Together Again Festival, Finnish Institutes (Benelux, UK + Ireland, Madrid, New York), the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute, and Institut Finlandais, Oodi Helsinki, FI
2023
Artist Talk: Archiving in the Age of Data, Power and Violence, Casa do Povo, São Paolo, BR
2023
Artist Talk: The Urgency of Asking Questions, Transmediale, Berlin, DE
2022
Guest Speaker: The Politics of Curating, Platform for Feminist Leadership, UrbanApa (online)
2022
Artist talk: Burn all the books that call you the unknown: Radical Archives, Party Office b2b Fadescha, documenta fifteen, Kassel, DE
2022
Panelist: How to work together – tools and practices for transgressional collective work, Stop Hatred Now! Festival, UrbanApa, Helsinki (online)
2021
Panelist: Decolonisation in the arts and cultural fields, part of ‘In Conversation with the Finnish Institutes’ moderated by Monica Gathuo, The Finnish Institute UK+Ireland, (online)
2021
Artist Talk: Central Park Archives: Access, commons, and networks of care, moderated by m-cult and invited speaker Annet Dekker, part of Gathering for Rehearsing Hospitalities Spring 2021, Maunulatalo, Helsinki (online)
2021
Artist Talk: Mobility and its Discontents: Internationalism, Mobility & Borders,  Hangö Teatrträff, (online)
2020
Artist Talk: Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 2 Readings with Annet Dekker, and Susanna Ånäs and Ali Akbar Mehta, Rehearsing Hospitalities, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Helsinki (online)
2020
Panelist: CreaTures (Creative Practices for Transformational Futures), Aalto University, Helsinki (online)
2020
Panelist: New Standards, Stop Hatred Now! Festival, UrbanApa, Helsinki (online)
2020
Artist Talk: Towards a New Internet, In conversation with Palash Mukhopadhyay, Myymälä2, Helsinki
2020
Artist Talk: Violence in Finnish Society, In conversation with Arvind Ramachandran, Myymälä2, Helsinki
2020
Artist Talk: Digital Creativity and Entanglement, In conversation with Timo Tuhkanen, Myymälä2, Helsinki
2020
Artist Talk: Is there a room with just a colour? In conversation with Camelo Ramiro, Myymälä2, Helsinki
2019
Guest Speaker: Notes for Radical Diversity, Helsinki Art Museum HAM, Helsinki
2019
Panelist: Resistance and Re-imagining Alternatives, Nordic Decolonial Workshop, Center for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN), Helsinki
2018
Guest Speaker: Re: Musing the Museum, Part II, Kiasma International Museum, Helsinki
2018
Guest Speaker: Maunula Remix, m-cult, Maunulatalo, Helsinki, FI
2018
Artist Talk: Congratulations, the space has been invaded: NOW WHAT?, Space Invaders VI, Helsinki, FI
2017
Panelist: Decolonial Dreaming, Urbanapa 2017, Atenuim Museum, Helsinki
2017
Artist Talk: The Urgency of Asking Questions, in conversation with Kevin Lobo, Piramal Museum, Mumbai
2018
Artist Talk: Memory and the Maximum City, Godrej India Culture Lab, Mumbai
2014
Artist Talk: FOLKARCHIVE, in conversation with Sumesh Sharma; moderated by Latika Gupta, Dr Bhau Daji Lad City Museum, Mumbai

Select Teaching / Lectures

2025
Guest lecturer: (Un) Learning Histories of, in, through Artistic Research, UNIARTS, Helsinki, FI
2023
Guest lecturer: Cyber Realities, Hybridity, and the Users (of Archives), Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art (ViCCA), Aalto University, Helsinki
2022
Guest lecturer: Who Watches Whom?, Art History programme, UNIARTS, Helsinki, FI
2021
Guest lecturer: A small introduction to the history of art from the Indian Subcontinent, w/ Vidha Saumya, UNIARTS, Helsinki, FI
2021
Guest lecturer: Archives as Witness, Archives as knowledge Systems, Darpan 2021, Symbiosis School For Liberal Arts (SSLA) Pune (online)
2020
Guest Lecturer and Mentor: Kuvan Kevät 2020, Exhibition Laboratory, University of Arts Helsinki, FI
2020
Guest lecturer: Archiving & the Curatorial Function, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bengaluru, (online)
2020
Workshop: Central Park Archives: Collective Authorship, M-cult, Maunulatalo, Helsinki
2020
Guest Lecturer: Surrender? Surrender, Exhibition Laboratory, University of the Arts Helsinki, Helsinki, FI
2018
Guest Speaker: Cyber Archives, Die Schule der Archaeutopie in conversation with Ali Akbar Mehta, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, Vienna
2018
Guest Lecturer: Archiving: Histories of the Present, Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art (ViCCA), Aalto University, Helsinki
2018
Workshop: A Common Sense Manifesto of Cooking Practices for Artists, Aalto University, Espoo, FI
2011-14
Guest Lecturer: Whistling Woods International Institute of Film, Communication & Media Arts, Mumbai, IN

Select Publications

2024
Review: Processual (re)presentations of ‘knowing’ without beginning(s) nor end(ings). In V. Saumya & E. Rahmati (Eds.), NO NIIN, 23.
2023
Journal article: The Politics of Togetherness: Beyond the integration infrastructure of State and institutional apparatus. In Z. Karimi, et. al. (Eds.), Rethinking Integration: Challenging Oppressive Practises and Pointing to Ways Forward. Volume 09, Migration Institute of Finland, ISBN 978-952-7399-37-8
2023
Catalog text: The Boycean double-bind: Exquisite Tension as a pedagogy of free play. In 30 Works from the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection, P Karttunen et al. (Eds.), Saastamoinen Foundation. ISBN 978-952-69029-1-3
2023
Catalog text: A rhythmic play of possibilities in time: Obliquo Policromo as a holder of existential potentialities. In 30 Works from the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection, P Karttunen et al. (Eds.), Saastamoinen Foundation. ISBN 978-952-69029-1-3
2023
Catalog text: A tessellated life: Space Structures as a philosophy of perseverance. In 30 Works from the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection, P Karttunen et al. (Eds.), Saastamoinen Foundation. ISBN 978-952-69029-1-3
2023
Book chapter: On the Edge of the Re(lation)al. In Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás & Marianne Schädler (Eds.), Beyond Matter, Within Space: Curatorial and Art Mediati
2022
Interview: On Recognising the moment of Hope: Speaking in Echoes with Hiwa K., In V. Saumya & E. Rahmati (Eds.), NO NIIN, 15.
2022
Review: Who Watches Whom? Ruminations on power, gaze, and field through Pivi Takala’s Close Watch. In V. Saumya & E. Rahmati (Eds.), NO NIIN, 12.
2022
Article: Bearing Witness: Articulating an Archival Practice. In Unstable capitalism, Tiede ja Edistys [Science & Progress], No.1-2(2022)
2021
Journal article: Touching/Transforming: Notes Towards Collective Critical Artistic Research Practices and Processes. (with Bäckman, F., Close, R., Godin, M-A., Kallio-Tavin, M., Mehta, A. A., Qureshi, A., & Sadatizarrini, S.) Research in Arts and Education, 4/2021, December. Aalto University. ISSN 2670-2142
2021
Book chapter: Generating (an)other economy: Working together at Museum of Impossible Forms. In E. Aiava & R. Aiava (Eds.), How to Work Together: Seeking models of solidarity and alliance (pp. 149–176). Museum of Impossible Forms. ISBN: 978-952-94-4840-1
2021
Book chapter: Ääniä Marginaalista: Museum of Impossible Forms Kontulassa [Voicing the Margins: Museum of Impossible Forms]. In A. Rastas & L. Koivunen (Eds.), Marginaaleista Museoihin [From Margins to Museums] (pp. 259-265). Vastapaino. ISBN 978-951-768-889-5
2021
Review: A longing for something written in memory: Library as Archive as Excavation Site. In V. Saumya & E. Rahmati (Eds.), NO NIIN, 1.
2021
Book chapter: Museum of Impossible Forms ja antirasistisen kulttuurituatannon haasteet [Museum of Impossible Forms and the challenges of antiracist cultural production]. In S. Keskinen, M. Seikkula, & F. Mkwesha (Eds.), Rasismi, valta ja vastarinta [Racism, power and resistance] (pp. 221-224). Gaudeamus. ISBN 978-9-5234-5107-0
2020
Book chapter: The Shape of Museums to Come. In Schnittpunkt & J Baur (Eds.), Das Museum der Zukunft: 43 Neue beiträge zur diskussion über die zukunft des museums [The Museum of the Future. 43 New Contributions to the Discussion about the Future of the Museum] (pp. 189-193). Transcript Verlag. ISBN: 978-3-8394-5270-7
2020
Curatorial text: Processing In-Between(ness), In M. Savallampi & A. A. Mehta (Eds.) In Between HIAP summer Residency publication (pp. 7-12). Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP).
2020
Book chapter: SAFE{R}: Evolving the Conditions for Collaboration. In Six years in the Third Space. Third Space (online).
2020
Curatorial text: Who is Welcome? – Thinking Hospitality as Museum of Impossible Forms. In Y Billimore & J Koitela (Eds.) Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 2 (pp. 109-111). Archive Books. ISBN 9783948212438
2020
Text: A Cyber Archive of Questions. In R. Rajiv (Ed.) cohabitant/mutants, Restricted Fixations #1
2019
Curatorial text: How to be hospitable without being a motel: Thinking Hospitalities. In Y. Billimore & J. Koitela (Eds.) Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 1 (pp. 57-65). Archive Books. ISBN 978394821215
2019
Curatorial text: Atlas of Lost Beliefs (for Insurgents, Citizens, & Untitled Bodies). Museum of Impossible Forms.
2019
Book chapter: To Not Wait for the Archive: Home and Labour mired in the complications of Invisibalisation. In S. Mahbouba, P. Jallili & E. Lagerspetz (Eds.), The Home Issue, Visual Culture and Contemporary Art Journal #5, Aalto University.
2018
Text: Colours of Violence. In N. Adajania (Ed.), AROOP III - Totems & Taboos. Raza Foundation.
2018
Journal article: Cyber Archive: Archiving as a sustainable counter-hegemonic practice. In A. Poddar & N. Desai (Eds.), Inside/Outside, Hakara Journal, #3
2018
MA Thesis: Cyber Archive: Being and Doing Knowledge. Aalto University.
2018
Editorial text: FOOD and Other Practices at the Arthouse. In A. A. Mehta & V. Saumya (Eds.), Visual Culture and Contemporary Art Journal #4. Aalto University
2017
Article: Locating: The Museum of Impossible Forms. In Kone Foundation Boldness Blog.
2017
Interview: Border Crossing: Reshaping the Agency of Struggle. In CuMMA Papers Publication Series. Aalto University.
2017
Journal article: The Photons of Politics: Footnotes for a New History. In S. Boynick (Ed.), RAB-RAB Journal for Political and Formal Inquiries in Art, #4.1 (pp. 67-79), RAB-RAB Press.
2015
Exhibition essay: No one at the ceremony remembers to mention the artist. for Vidha Saumya’s exhibition, No one at the ceremony remembers to mention the artist. Third Space.
2014
Artist book: Site: Stage: Structure. StudioVAAK.
2011
Poem: A body split in two, In B. Sarkar (Ed.), International Gallerie: Journal of Contemporary art, issue 30. Mumbai.

Public projects / Commissions

2015
TRINITY: Godrej Legacy Park Silos, Godrej One, Mumbai, IN

Positions of Trust and Memberships

2025 – ongoing
Board Member and Vice-chair, m-cult Media Culture Centre, Helsinki, FI
2021 – ongoing
Member, Catalysti, Helsinki, FI
2021 – 2022
Board Member, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Helsinki, FI
2021 – 2023
Board Member, TKOK ry, the supervising body of Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki, FI
2021
Board Chair, Kiila ry, Helsinki, FI
2019 – 2021
Research Member, Cluster of Critical Artistic Research (CCARE), Aalto University, Helsinki, FI
2019 – ongoing
Member, Party Office, New Delhi, IN
2019 – 2021
Board Member, Kiila ry, Helsinki, FI
2016 – ongoing
Founding member, Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki, FI
2016 – 2017
Member, Third Space, Helsinki, FI