We are delighted to announce the opening of ‘KAGHAZI PAIRAHAN: Publishing and Resistance in South Asia’ curated by Akshay Mahajan and Devadeep Gupta; presented by Editions JOJO.

Opening: 22 March 2025, Saturday
Time: 6.30 pm onwards

About:

Kaghazi Pairahan, meaning “clothes made of paper”, is a unique exhibition and traveling library of artists’ publications engaging with social and political dissent across South Asia. Featuring photobooks, zines, unpublished dummies, and pamphlets, the exhibition explores publishing as a strategy of resistance—against state violence, caste oppression, patriarchy, environmental degradation, and censorship. Its title recalls an ancient tradition in which individuals seeking justice wore paper garments, a symbolic act of vulnerability transformed into defiance.

For its latest iteration at Arthshila Goa, Kaghazi Pairahan expands its discourse with new works situating protest, citizenship, and memory within contemporary urgencies. The Amche Mollem collective presents an intervention on community-led efforts to protect Goa’s ecology from destructive infrastructural projects. Nishant Saldanha pays tribute to Goan revolutionary and anti-colonial freedom fighter Libia Lobo Sardesai, illuminating her enduring legacy. Niharika Chauhan’s ‘Second Home’ critiques the proliferation of second homes in Goa and their socio-environmental impact. Krithika Sriram’s ‘Booklet of Banned Objects’ interrogates censorship, exposing shifting boundaries of control. Rajyashri Goody’s ‘Writing Recipes’ entwines culinary traditions with narratives of defiance, revealing everyday resistance.

These additions deepen the exhibition’s role as an evolving archive of dissent. Curated by Devadeep Gupta and Akshay Mahajan and presented by Editions JOJO.

Akshay Mahajan:
Akshay Mahajan is an artist and his professional engagements with the visual arts takes shape through writing, photography, teaching and curation.

Devadeep Gupta:
Devadeep Gupta is an artist and filmmaker based in Assam. His works centres around the exploration of regional ecological undercertainities, critically examining institutionalised histories and contemporary mainstream perspectives.