Event Details

Akshay Mahajan in conversation with Max Pinckers about Open Books, where the two explore how Pinckers’ photo books blur the lines between fact and fiction, pushing the boundaries of storytelling and publishing – a dialogue that promises to captivate and inspire!

Akshay Mahajan (b. 1985, India) is an artist who uses photography and collage as tools to explore culture, memory, and the hidden connections between post-colonial realities and pre-colonial histories. His practice employs collage as radical citation, layering archival materials, images, and text to challenge dominant narratives, reclaim erased voices, and expose the unresolved historiography shaping the present.

Mahajan’s work examines cities, landscapes, folklore, and mythologies, focusing on “failed futures”—unrealized aspirations embedded in the physical structures and spaces of the non-western world. Through this lens, he uncovers the personal and political intersections between individual lives and fragmented histories.

In 2023, Mahajan was the runner-up of the Aperture Portfolio Prize and named Foam Talent for 2023–24. He won the Nera di Verzasca Prize in 2024.

His work has been exhibited at venues including the 13th Bamako Encounters, Cairo Biennale, Athens Photo Festival, and Encontros da Imagem.

He co-founded Blindboys.org, reclaiming public spaces for photography, and co-curates Goa Familia, an evolving archive of Goan family histories. A member of the PIX Quarterly editorial team, he also co-curates GoaPhoto, engaging deeply with South Asian photographic practices through curation, writing, and teaching.

Entry Free.