UN.MAKE. The Art of Gender

UN.MAKE. The Art of Gender is a five-day residential workshop at the SSAF Kasauli Art Project (SKAP), conceptualised by reFrame Initiatives and designed for emerging artists interested in or working with a mix of media and materials. It seeks to engage people of all genders – women, men, queer, non-binary, trans* folks– who are open to questioning dominant tropes of gender, and to facilitate locating these questions in their own and each other’s lived realities and creative practice/s. The workshop will also study the politics of how gender makes and unmakes as it intersects with caste, class, ethnicity, religion, region and dis/ability.

Through collective viewing, discussions and activities that involve making and un-making, the workshop will initiate a critical reading of a range of works created by diverse artists from their multiple locations. Engaging with the practices of artists as varied as Marina Abramovic, Judy Chicago, Rummana Hussain, Nalini Malani, Maya Rao, Shilo Shiv Suleman, Jyotsna Siddharth and others, the workshop will explore creative possibilities for storytelling around gendered lives and living, across art forms in a mixed-media landscape.

Centred on everyday materials, the workshop will engage with the significance and materiality of objects, and with aspects beyond their functionality such as textures, sensations, memories, associations, symbolism. It will unpack how social determinants frame our relationship with the banality of objects and materials, to understand the frameworks of social capital, structural inequalities, socio-political discrimination, and other axes of power, privilege and prejudice.

The primary focus of UN.MAKE. will be on processes of conceptualizing and working, rather than on creating finished works. Across the five days, participants will respond to specific provocations and challenges that encourage deeper thinking about what they wish to convey through their work/s, how they wish to express themselves, and the potentialities and pitfalls of the act of making itself.

Facilitators

Vani Subramanian is a feminist activist and award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work explores the politics of everyday life – from gender and justice to memory and space. Her films have been screened and awarded in India and abroad. Her current practice also includes creating video art, collaborating with other artists, creating mixed media installations and digital shows. As a Fulbright Fellow, she has worked in the politics of cinematic space/s in Hindi cinema across the ages. She has also been guest faculty at multiple educational institutions including Cornell university, School of Planning and Architecture, Sushant School of Architecture and Mahatma Gandhi Hindi University. Vani is the Creative Director of reFrame Institute of Art and Expression and reFrame Initiatives Foundation.

Hansa Thapliyal is a filmmaker, writer and teacher based in Bangalore. While in FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) where she trained as a filmmaker, she worked extensively on the histories of technologies that predated cinema.

Neeharika Sreedhar whose practice in the cultural programming space is located at the crossroads of gender, community knowledge, history and the arts, informed by her background in urban studies and heritage conservation. In addition to her role as Associate Programme Manager at reFrame, she also seeks to bring research outcomes and design together in meaningful ways.

Essential Information

We invite applications from emerging artists interested in or working with a mix of media and materials. We seek to engage people of all genders – women, men, queer, non-binary or trans* folks who are open to questioning dominant tropes of gender and locating these questions in their own and each other’s lived realities and creative practice/s.

The medium of instruction in the workshop will be English and Hindi.

Eligibility

• The workshop is open to Indian nationals currently residing in India.
• Applicants must be at least 21 years of age at the time of application. There is no upper age limit.

Important Dates

• Deadline for submitting applications: 30 May 2026
• Selected participants will be informed by 5 June 2026
• Workshop dates: 21–25 June 2026
• Participants are expected to arrive a day prior on 20 June and depart on 26 June.

Costs

• There are no participation fees.
• Accommodation (shared basis) and food for the duration of the workshop in Kasauli will be covered by SSAF.
• Participants are expected to pay for and make arrangements for their travel to and from Chandigarh/Kalka.
  SSAF will arrange transport from Chandigarh/Kalka to SKAP.
  The closest train stations are in Chandigarh (1.5 hours by road from Kasauli) and Kalka (45 minutes by road from Kasauli). There are several trains daily to Chandigarh and Kalka from Delhi. The closest airports are in Delhi and Chandigarh.

Application material

Please submit your application via the form HERE.

The application requires the following material:

1. Your personal information including name, gender, contact number, email, residing address and date of birth.

2. Short biographical note about your creative/ research practice and current concerns. You are welcome to also share images of 3-5 works or projects. In case you are including links to audio/ video files, please ensure that they are accessible (include passwords if required). [Upload as a PDF document.]

3. Response statement: What is your current practice with mixed media or any other material? What interests you about this workshop and what are your expectations from it? [Maximum 500 words. Upload as a PDF document.]

4. Additional Information: Anything else you might like us to know about you or/and your practice. [Upload as a PDF document.]

For queries, please write to us at ssaf.kasauliartproject@gmail.com