Aazhi Talks - I | The Sea is History ... really beginning | Prof. Dilip Menon

Aazhi Talks - I | The Sea is History ... really beginning | Prof. Dilip Menon

Aazhi Talks - I
The Sea is History ... really beginning
Prof. Dilip Menon
Professor of History
University of Witwatersrand,
South Africa

Histories of the sea have extended concepts from terrestrial narratives - state, law, class etc. - and recreated the sea as the mirror of the land. What does it mean to think about the sea as a boiling vessel, generating its own histories brought with winds, typhoons, tsunamis over which humans have no control. We have to engage with the horizontal sea on which humans make their histories as much as the vertical sea with its non-human populations and lost cities; cities claimed by the ocean. How can we think histories of the sea on its own terms? What would generating concepts from the sea entail?

About Aazhi Archives

Aazhi Archives (AA) is a collective of artists, writers and scholars who are engaged in education and art projects through research, art-making, writing, curating, and publications. AA intends to bring them into creative conversation with each other to focus on the cosmopolitan pasts and traditions of Kerala region. It is conceived as a physical as well as a digital audio-visual archive of Kerala’s history, culture, politics and society.


SEA A BOILING VESSEL - project by Aazhi Archives
Kochi, Dec. ’22- Apr. ’23.

Conceived as a global art project ‘Sea – A Boiling Vessel’ will be spearheaded by Aazhi Archives and supported by Uru Art Harbour and Design Trust of India. Academic and research institutions from India and abroad like Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala Council for Historical Research, I- Shore, the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and Nirox Foundation associate with this project as knowledge partners.

Imagined as a site of learning, art-making and exhibition, ‘Sea - A Boiling Vessel’ will host imaginative projects from artists, thinkers and writers, and organise workshops, residencies, seminars, exhibitions to give form and shape to this voyage.

Artistic Director
Riyas Komu

Curatorial Assistance
Dr. C S Venkiteswaran

Curatorial Advisor
Prof. M H Ilias

Curatorial Assistant
Anuj Daga

Project Manager
Kshema Varghese

info@aazhiarchives.com