River Talk I
13th May 2027
Natasha Ginwala is a curator, researcher and writer. She is artistic director of Colomboscope in Sri Lanka since 2019 and curator of Current V: Ancestral Ocean at TBA21—Academy (2026-08). She previously served as Associate Curator at Large at Gropius Bau, Berlin (2018-2024) was also co-artistic director of the 13th Gwangju Biennale (2021). Ginwala was part of curatorial teams of Sharjah Biennial 16 (2025), Contour Biennale 8, documenta 14 (2017), 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2014), Taipei Biennale 2012, and other international exhibitions at e-flux, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, ifa Gallery, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, L’appartement 22, Sharjah Art Foundation, Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi, MCA Chicago, 56th Venice Biennale, SAVVY Contemporary and Zeitz MOCAA. Ginwala is a widely published author on contemporary art, visual culture, and social justice.
At River Talk I, Natasha's reflection will engage riverine ecosystems through artistic voices engaged in platforms such as Colomboscope arts festival in Sri Lanka and The Ancestral Well: Pulse to Terrain (Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry). In her own words, "I've for long been considering how water-led kinships are fostered and sustained against belligerent policing of national boundaries, and how we may move from dispute into conspiring and dreaming as creative allies. Within the arts context the specificity of operating from a coastal ecology will also be considered as a bodily and cognitive experience and how movement unfolds within the Indian Ocean world from pre-modern times into the fissured present. Likewise, I also look forward to unpack ideas emerging through my curatorial fellowship Ancestral Ocean with TBA21–Academy (2026-08)."
Sakiya, Water Witnesses. 2020–ongoing, installation view, commissioned for Sharjah Biennial 16, Sharjah Art Foundation
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River Talks are curated by Noor Ahmed, Martina Huber, and Anushka Rajendran for River Landscapes in collaboration with Karachi Biennale 2027, We Are AIA|Awareness in Art, and Prameya Art Foundation