Gopal MS aka Mumbai Paused is a photo-blogger who shoots streets of Mumbai and tries to peel layers of the city like an onion using photographs. He has been shooting the streets of Mumbai since 2008, in tales and scenes that weave larger narratives about a place that is constantly evolving in digital formats like blogs, social media and through self published digital photo-books. He tries to show the city's inhabitants cling gracefully to a sense of self in the face of adversity and change. His latest book is called Matsyagandha -Low Tide Smells of the Island City.
Ranjit Kandalgaonkar lives and works in Mumbai. His practice focuses primarily on unseen and ignored processes of urbanization which he addresses in his project ‘cityinflux’. Other long term projects such as ‘Gentricity,’ ‘Stories of Philanthropic Trusts,’ ‘build/browse,’ 'Isles amidst reclamation' and 'Seven Isles unclaimed' attempt to unlock historical and contemporary data, placing the work in the context of an unseen, social history. For eg, since 2009, 'Stories of Philanthropic Trusts' is a research project documenting the benevolent activities of communities living in trusts in 19th century Bombay. 'Modelled Recycled Systems' is a long term project recording ship-breaking practices at Alang, Gujarat & (Darukhana) Mumbai. Part of the project, Shipping & the Shipped was showcased at the Bergen Assembly, Art & Research Triennial in 2016. He is the recipient of the Majlis Visual Arts Fellowship, SAI Harvard University artist residency, U.D.R.I Architectural Fellowship, a Wellcome Trust Seed Award, Leverhulme Trust Artist in Residence and Gasworks artist residency in collaboration with Wellcome Collections last year for which he produced a drawing depicting his research on the Bombay plague of 1896.
Sarover Zaidi is currently writing her PhD on religion, architecture and urban spaces of Bombay. Her work, ethnographically traces the manners in which everyday life and architectural practices enmesh to produce a city spaces. She has specifically focused on the old 'native' town of Bombay, namely Mohammad Ali road area, and has explored the manners in which architectural aspirations of people and city planners, concede and contest social and political formations of the city. She also curates a series titled 'Elementary forms and the City,' which brings together interdisciplinary formats of looking at city spaces. She has previously studied philosophy and social anthropology, worked in rural public health, and is currently an INTACH fellow.
Zameer Basrai
The Busride is an independent design studio specializing in the design and creation of built environments, both temporary and permanent. Their work spans across hospitality and entertainment venues, to film and production environments, and from exhibitions and installations, to institutional environments. Led by Ayaz and Zameer Basrai, the studio is a small team of architects and industrial designers, who work in a multi-disciplinary environment across micro to the macro scales. Apart from design, the studio has diverse research interests in heritage conservation, Islamic architecture and urban futures. They work from Mumbai and Goa.
Zameer Basrai is co-founder of The Busride Design studio. He has degrees from CEPT, Ahmedabad, India and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Ranjit Hostoke is a cultural theorist, curator and poet. He is the author of more than 25 books, including Vanishing Acts: New & Selected Poems 1985-2005 (Penguin, 2006) and Central Time (Penguin/ Viking, 2014), and the monographs Zinny and Maidagan: Compartment/Das Abteil (Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/ Walther König, 2010) and Atul Dodiya (Prestel, 2014). Hoskote has translated the poetry of the 14th-century Kashmiri mystic Lal Ded as I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded (Penguin Classics, 2011). With Ilija Trojanow, he has co-authored Kampfabsage (Blessing, 2007; in English as Confluences: Forgotten Histories from East and West, Yoda, 2012). With Nancy Adajania, he is co-author of The Dialogues Series (Popular, 2011), an unfolding programme of conversations with artists. With Maria Hlavajova, he is editor of Future Publics: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art (BAK, forthcoming). Since 1993, Hoskote has curated 30 exhibitions of contemporary art, including two monographic surveys of Atul Dodiya (Bombay: Labyrinth/ Laboratory, Japan Foundation, Tokyo, 2001; and Experiments with Truth: Atul Dodiya, Works 1981-2013, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, 2013), a lifetime retrospective of Jehangir Sabavala (National Gallery of Modern Art, Bombay and New Delhi, 2005-2006), a historical survey of Indian abstraction, Nothing is Absolute (with Mehlli Gobhai; CSMVS/ The Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, 2013), and a survey of 150 years of art by Parsi artists within the narrative of an emergent Indian modernism, No Parsi is an Island (with Nancy Adajania; National Gallery of Modern Art, Bombay, 2013-2014). Over 2000-2002, Hoskote co-curated the trans-Asian collaborative project, ‘Under Construction’ (Japan Foundation: Tokyo and other Asian centres). Hoskote co-curated the 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008) He was curator of India’s first-ever national pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2011). And a jury Member of the 56th Venice Biennale.

The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) Mumbai, Ministry of Culture, Government of India is a repository of the cultural ethos of the country and showcases the changing art forms through the passage of the last 160 years starting from about 1857 in the field of Visual and Plastic arts. The first NGMA was opened in New Delhi at the historic Jaipur House, in the presence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and artists and art lovers on March 29, 1954. The National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai was opened to the public in 1996. It hosts various exhibitions and also has its own art collections comprising paintings, sculptures and graphics with a focus on Indian and International artists. It is located in the precinct of the former auditorium the Sir Cowasji Jehangir Public Hall and the Institute of Science. This architecturally marvellous building was designed and built by the famous British architect George Wittet which has been completely redesigned keeping only the facade edifice that was Public Hall. It has hosted eminent artists like, K.H. Ara, F. N. Souza, Gaitonde, S.H. Raza and M.F. Hussain and contemporary artists like, K.G. Subramanyam, Sudhir Patwardhan, Nalini Malini, Atul Dodiya and Sudarshan Shetty. The NGMA in Mumbai is run and administered as a subordinate office to the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, which has two branches one at Mumbai and the other at Bengaluru. Avid Learning, a public programming platform and cultural arm of the Essar Group, has conducted over 950 programs and connected with more than 100,000 individuals since its inception in 2009. Driven by the belief that Learning Never Stops, AVID’s multiple formats like Workshops, Panel Discussions, Gallery Walkthroughs, and Festival Platforms create a dynamic and interactive atmosphere that stimulates intellectual and creative growth across the fields of Culture & Heritage, Literature, Art and Innovation.