Poets and Speakers

Kaiwan Mehta

Shahnaz Munni © Goethe-Institut
Kaiwan Mehta Born in Mumbai, Kaiwan Mehta, is a theorist and critic in the fields of visual culture, architecture, and city studies. He recently submitted his doctoraal thesis at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bengaluru, under the aegis of Manipal University on 'architectural ornaments and its relationship to the city and metropolitan experience, with a specific focus on Mumbai'. He has now published as well as exhibited his research work and ideas internationally. He authored Alice in Bhuleshwar: Navigating a Mumbai Neighbourhood (Yoda Press. New Delhi, 2009). Since March 2012 he has been the Managing Editor of Domus India (Spenta Multimedia) and writes prolifically on architecture, aesthetics, and cities. He has set up courses in Architecture Theory as well as Art, Criticism and Theory, the politics around Craft as well as Aesthetics, and teaches across various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Mumbai including setting up the Parsons - The New School for Design in Mumbai, India. He has been elected as the Jury Chairman for two consecutive terms (2015–17 and 2017–2019) for the international artists’ residency programme across 11 disciplines at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. Mehta has recently authored the book The Architecture of I M Kadri (Niyogi. New Delhi, 2016) hoping to challenge in many ways the dogmatic and rehearsed arguments around modern and contemporary architecture in India.