December 7, 2024
Experimenter presents Be-khaufi, a symposium rooted in fearlessness, collective thinking, and open dialogue on Saturday, December 7, 2024 at Experimenter—Hindustan Road, Kolkata.
Be-khaufi, imagined as a daylong gathering, will bring together some of the most progressive thought leaders, journalists, writers, activists and arts workers, who operate within convoluted and broken systems, trying to foster change. The current times demand a moment of pause and reflection. The program at Experimenter aims to actively enable unhindered and constructive conversation, and through Be-khaufi, create a safe space and spirit of fearlessness.
Priyanka and Prateek Raja, founders of Experimenter in a letter said “We write to you with a thought, a possibility, a provocation to stir ourselves, not only from the numbness that we feel from the violence and inhumanity that has enveloped our world, but also to speak truth to power, question the hegemonies of state structures and to express freely. Closer home in Kolkata, we have yet again been witness to the brutal violence against women that makes us fundamentally question the very nature of our society. It is imperative to explore a grammar of courage, which is conscious that justice is an unfinished pathway."
The speakers at Be-khaufi are Rana Ayyub, award winning Indian journalist and op inion columnist with The Washington Post; Kavita Krishnan, feminist activist, and writer; Sabika Abbas Naqvi, human rights organizer, poet and educator; Rimjhim Sinha, feminist researcher and a key campaigner of the “Reclaim the Night” movement in West Bengal; Moushumi Bhowmik, singer-songwriter, writer, sound archivist, and folk music researcher; Natasha Ginwala (moderator), Artistic director of Colomboscope, Sri Lanka and co-curator of Sharjah Biennial 16. The closing panel will be moderated by writer, Anish Gawande.
Attendance to the symposium is free by prior registration only, on first-come first-serve basis with limited seating in keeping with the intimate nature of the gathering. All registered participants are expected to commit their entire day to the program in person.
Speaker biographies
Rana Ayyub is an Indian investigative journalist and a global opinions writer at the Washington Post. She has worked as a reporter, editor and columnist with leading publications in India and internationally. Her pieces appear in Time Magazine, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic and Foreign Policy. The New Yorker has profiled and featured her on its cover. Rana has reported extensively on majoritarian politics and violence, extrajudicial killings by the state, Islamophobia, communalism and authored an international bestseller titled Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover-Up.
Kavita Krishnan is a feminist activist and writer. She is the author of Fearless Freedom, a defence of women’s rights to public space in India.
Sabika Abbas Naqvi is a poet, movement organiser, educator, and qissa-goh. Her work revolves around issues of gender, minority rights and justice. She performs in public spaces, edits anthologies, translates and is constantly working on at least five dreamy or nonsensical side projects. If not for her work, she would be a full time stand-up comic or leading a cult of 'doing nothing'. She currently leads the movement and global campaigns work at Noor, is the Editor in Chief of SAAG (saaganthology.com). Sabika is a Rockefeller and Care Fellow (Arts for Gender Equality) as well as an INK Fellow. Her poems are taught at prestigious universities across the world.
Rimjhim Sinha is an independent feminist researcher and a key campaigner of the “Reclaim the Night” recent movement in West Bengal. The movement was a public response to the brutal rape and murder of the young trainee doctor at R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospitalin Kolkata. As a student of Sociology, she is keen on developing an inclusive language of intersectionality that audaciously aims to eradicate all forms of oppression.
Natasha Ginwala is a curator, researcher and writer, co-curator, Sharjah Biennial 16 (2023-25), artistic director of Colomboscope, Sri Lanka since 2019 and associate Curator at Large at Gropius Bau, Berlin (2018 – 2024). She was also artistic director of the 13th Gwangju Biennale with Defne Ayas (2021). Ginwala has been part of curatorial teams of 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2014), Contour Biennale 8, documenta 14 (2017), Taipei Biennale 2012 and co-curated several international exhibitions including at e-flux, Sharjah Art Foundation, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, ifa Gallery, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, L’ appartement 22, Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi, MCA Chicago, 56th Venice Biennale, SAVVY Contemporary and Zeitz MOCAA. Ginwala is a widely published author with a focus on contemporary art, visual culture, and social justice.
Closing performance: Experimenter—Ballygunge Place, Kolkata
Moushumi Bhowmik is a Kolkata-based singer, writer and researcher who works across India, Bangladesh and the UK and collaborates with artists and scholars from many disciplines and media. Her work is built around questions of home, borders and freedom. Listening, recording, archiving and performing constitute her art practice. Her work can be visited at thetravellingarchive.org.
Be-khaufi is presented by Experimenter Learning Program Foundation.
For any further information or press inquiries email admin@experimenter.in.
