The innocuous act of placing a matka (clay jar of drinking water) on doorsteps of homes, is a collective recognition of thirst. This extraneous domestic gesture for the stray passer-by creates a small space, the tiniest space of reprieve, a narrow opening for the not-quite encounter. The extraneous element disrupts–puts a foot in–the doorstep, the piazza, the courtyard, making a fissure in public space.

The curator Zasha Colah will present two exhibitions, ‘Extraneous’ (Curated By festival, Exile, Vienna, Austria, September 2022), and the working-group exhibition by the artist Margherita Moscardini, ‘And remember that holes can move’ (Ar/Ge Kunst, Bozen-Bolzano, September 2023). Colah will reflect on the artistic practices, brought together for these exhibitions, that worked at the edges of legality, and entered directly within international law and its processes to dissect and expose the absurdities of the state, fixed identities, and borders, as well as the urgency to form a new historical conscience around which to sew an idea of citizenship, at last free from territorial origins and blood ties.

Zasha Colah is co-artistic director of Ar/Ge Kunst (with Francesca Verga, Bozen-Bolzano, 2023–) and a lecturer in Curatorial Studies at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (Milano, 2018–). She is curator of the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (June to September 2025). In the past, she has been a research fellow at 221A (Vancouver, 2021–22) for a project segueing indigenous geographies, titled ‘The Scorched Earthly’. Her doctorate (La Sapienza, 2020) revolved around illegality and meta-exhibition practices from 1982 to 2016 in Indo-Myanmar. She co-founded the curatorial collaborative and artist union Clark House Initiative (Mumbai, 2010–22), co-curating actions and exhibitions both in that venue and public space, as well as at the invitation of ISCP New York, Ink Yangon, Kadist Paris, SMBA Amsterdam, among others (with Yogesh Barve, Sachin Bonde, Poonam Jain, Prabhakar Pachpute, Amol K Patil, Rupali Patil, Nikhil Raunak, and Sumesh Sharma, 2010–15). Prior to this, she was curator of Indian Modern Art at JNAF/CSMVS Museum and curator of public programs at the National Gallery of Modern Art, both in Mumbai. Curatorial projects include ‘I love you Sugar Kane’ (ICAIO, Port Louis, 2016), a monographic exhibition of Prabhakar Pachpute (with Luca Cerizza, NGMA Mumbai 2016), ‘body luggage’ (steirischer herbst, Kunsthaus Graz, 2016), 3rd Pune Biennale (with Luca Cerizza, 2017), 2nd Yinchuan Biennale (curatorial team led by Marco Scotini, 2018), and solo exhibitions by Muna Mussie, Anawana Haloba (with Chiara Figone, Archive Milano, 2021). She lives in Torino, Italy (2017–). Currently, she lives in Berlin (2024–25) to prepare the 13th Berlin Biennale.

The lecture will be held in English.