OCO Residency Programme 2025
Curatorial note
This to continue the vision of the project, Odisha Craft Odyssey, which aims to document all living craft practices through cross-disciplinary dialogues among the fields of Art, Lens-based Practices, Design, and Research. As the second iteration of Odisha Craft Odyssey, we invite practitioners to engage with this edition’s craft initiatives. With this edition, the Practitioners in Residence will participate in a six-week residency, closely working and understanding various nuances of Appliqué craft in Pipli, near Bhubaneswar.
Through this programme, the residents are expected to make interventions through their respective practices by analyzing the layers of particularities that contribute to the documentation of this living tradition of Odisha. In this way, the residents are anticipated to develop their artistic inquiries to create conceptual frameworks that could destabilize the epistemic knowledge of the craft, as perceived in the present. The core of the residency programme encourages exploration, pushing the boundaries from disciplinary engagement to community-driven collaboration.
We aspire for this project to lead to various intricate narratives that can shift perspectives on the history of the craft. Similarly, since this project seeks to move beyond conventional documentation approaches, we aim to engage with artistic practices and methodologies that foreground alternatives in documenting craft histories, the personal aspects of creation, and the narratives of artisanal identities through cultural and historiographic mobilizations.
Curatorial team of OCO Residency 2025
Sibdas Sengupta
Curator & Jury
Sibdas Sengupta is a conceptual artist and curator from Odisha, currently based in Gurugram, Haryana. Through collaborative, critical, and process-oriented frameworks, Sibdas explores the evolving landscape of curatorial engagement through different forms of exhibition-making practices. As the curator, currently, he leads the programming for Dotwalk Ajitara Art Residency in New Delhi and Odisha Craft Odyssey in Bhubaneswar.
Shafeena Yusuff Ali
Jury
Shafeena Yusuff Ali is the Founder of the Rizq Art Initiative (RAi), launched in 2023 to champion artists from the Global South and strengthen Abu Dhabi's position within the UAE's vibrant cultural landscape. An alumna of both Oxford and Cambridge, she brings together cultural vision and strategic business acumen. In addition to her work in the arts, she serves as Chairperson of Tablez India and Director of Twenty 14 Holdings, and spearheads philanthropic efforts across India through the Adeeb and Shafeena Action Research Foundation.
Premjish Achari
Jury
Premjish Achari is a curator and writer, currently serving as Curator at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi. He was Editorial Supervisor for Lokame Tharavadu (2021), a landmark exhibition organised by the Kochi Biennale Foundation. His writings have been published in Take on Art, Portrait of an Artist as an Individual, Altaf: Early Drawings, Iconic: Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art, and Unframed (Harper Design, 2023), among others.
Jagannath Panda
Jury
Jagannath Panda is a leading contemporary artist known for his synthesis of urban realism, mythology, and traditional craft. He has exhibited internationally, including at the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Pizzuti Collection (Ohio), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul), and Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi). In 2011, he founded the Utsha Foundation for Contemporary Art in Bhubaneswar to foster cultural dialogue and artistic experimentation. He currently lives and works in New Delhi, actively contributing to both Indian and global contemporary art discourses.
Residents of 2025
Raj Maurya
Photographer
Raj Maurya is a multidisciplinary artist, archivist, and researcher working at the intersections of photography, moving image, and community-led archival practices. Trained in photography design, his work spans photography, film, and archival research, exploring how lived experiences, cultural practices, and oral histories shape collective memory and identity. Raj’s practice is rooted in close collaborations with communities and draws from traditional knowledge systems, material culture, and local histories.
He uses visual storytelling not only as a method of documentation but also as a way to reimagine and recontextualize cultural heritage in contemporary forms. His recent projects reflect an evolving interest in how art, archives, and public engagement can collectively respond to socio-cultural transitions and the fragility of lived histories. Through a blend of research and practice, Raj aims to create spaces for reflection, empathy, and deeper understanding of the past in relation to the present.
