Kim Anand Thayil is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the Seattle-based rock band Soundgarden, which he co-founded with singer Chris Cornell and bassist Hiro Yamamoto in 1984. Cornell and Thayil remained as the original members of the band until Cornell's death in 2017, and the band's subsequent split in 2018. Thayil was named the 100th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2010, and the 67th greatest guitarist of all time by SPIN in 2012. Thayil has won two Grammy Awards as a member of Soundgarden.
Suman Kalyanpur is an Indian playback singer who is most notable for her work in Hindi cinema. She recorded songs for movies in several languages besides Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Odia and Punjabi.
An arts festival is a festival that can encompass a wide range of art forms including music, dance, film, fine art, literature, poetry and is not solely focused on visual arts. Arts festivals may feature a mixed program that include music, literature, comedy, children's entertainment, science, or street theatre, and are typically presented in venues over a period of time ranging from as short as a day or a weekend to a month. Each event within the program is usually separate.
Indian rock is a music genre in India that may incorporate elements of Indian music with rock music, and is often topically India-centric. While India is more often known for its classical music, filmi, Bollywood music, Indi-pop, and Bhangra, the Indian rock scene has also produced numerous bands and artists.
Prasoon Joshi is an Indian poet, writer, lyricist, screenwriter, communication specialist and marketer. He is the CEO of McCann World group India and Chairman APAC, a subsidiary of the global marketing firm McCann Erickson. He was appointed as the Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification on 11 August 2017.
Hiran Mitra is an artist based in Kolkata. He left his ancestral country home in Kharagpur to study Fine Art in the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata at the age of 14. His paintings are energetic abstract gestural paintings with the choreography of the human body observed from folk dance having influenced his recent calligraphic forms. He has contributed significantly to the visual stimulus in eastern Indian films, television, theatre and literature since in the 1980s [. He is also known to have defined a benchmark for book cover design for contemporary Bengali literature. His paintings are statements on the human condition and the twilight zones of reality and time. Bold brush strokes, layered washes and sprays and unconventional use of acrylic and industrial paints characterize his paintings. He is part of the Open Window Artist group and has been part of the Painters 80 Artist group in Kolkata.
Countess Adelina von Fürstenberg-Herdringen is a Swiss curator specialized in contemporary art. Von Fürstenberg was one of the first curators to show an interest in non-European artists, thus opening the way for a multicultural approach in art. She also took a more global and flexible approach to contemporary art exhibitions, in bringing art into spaces such as monasteries, madrasas, large public buildings, squares, islands, and parks. Her objective is to give a larger context for visual art in making it a more vigorous part of our lives, in creating a more vivid dialogue for it with other arts, and relating it more to worldwide social issues.
Alarmel Valli is an Indian classical dancer and Bharatanatyam-Pandanallur choreographer.
Jeet Thayil is an Indian poet, novelist, librettist and musician. He is the author of several poetry collections, including These Errors Are Correct (2008), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award. His first novel, Narcopolis, (2012), won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize and The Hindu Literary Prize.
Mahesh Kale is an Indian Classical vocalist renowned for his specialization in Indian Classical (Hindustani), Semi-Classical, Devotional music including Natya Sangeet. Mahesh Kale won the 63rd National Film Award as the Best Playback Singer, for the song Aruni Kirani in the film Katyar Kaljat Ghusli. He is a disciple of Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki. He was ranked nineteenth in The Times of India's Top 20 Most Desirable Men of Maharashtra in 2017.
Lucas Fotsing Takou, known as LucFosther Diop, is a Cameroonian artist, filmmaker, actor and entrepreneur. As an artist, he is best known for his drawings, collages, performances and films exploring the ongoing repercussions of the western neocolonialism and imperialism within the contemporary context of globalisation.
Sooraj Santhosh is an Indian singer, songwriter, producer, and composer. He straddles the worlds of independent music and playback singing, moving smoothly between the two. Sooraj is the recipient of a Kerala State Film Award (2016), 2 Mirchi Music Awards, and a Kerala State Film Critics Award (2021). He has sung around 300 songs in 8 languages.
Pandit S. Ballesh Bhajantri is a popular Indian classical Hindustani shehnai player. He is a disciple of shehnai player Ustad Bismillah Khan, he is benares gharana shehnai player and a patiala gharana hindustani vocalist, ghazal singer, Indian playback singer and musician, Ballesh is credited with popularizing the shehnai, a reeded woodwind instrument. He is also a Prasar Bharati's All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan artist.
Kaushik Menon is a vocalist and an Indian playback singer working in the south Indian film industry. He started his professional playback singing career in the year in 2003, and since has been working as playback singer for multiple languages - including Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. He is known for his song, "Natkal Nagarndhu" – the song of friendship from the movie Ninaithale Inikkum that gave him a major breakthrough as a playback singer. He owns a recording studio at Chennai named 'Tapas Studio'. At present he is working as an RJ in a reputed FM in UAE, also he is busy with his music events.
Gabriel Mascaro is a Brazilian visual artist and film director.
Jim Sarbh is an Indian actor known for his work in films and stage productions. He has received several awards including a Filmfare OTT Award, and an IIFA Award with a nomination for an International Emmy Award. Additionally, he has directed and acted in numerous theatre productions in India.
Emo de Medeiros is a Beninese artist living and working in Paris, France and in Cotonou, Benin.
Paulo Nimer Pjota is a mixed media Brazilian artist. Pjota prefers to work on large surfaces. He uses canvas, sacks and scrap metal plates, mostly found in junkyards, as supports.
Hari & Sukhmani is an Indian folktronic duo comprising Hari Singh Jaaj and Sukhmani Malik, who are known for fusing traditional folk music of Punjab with electronic music, and incorporating elements from Sufi poetry of Bulle Shah, Baba Farid, Kabir, and Shah Hussain, in their compositions.
Isaac Chong Wai is a Hong Kong-Berlin artist. He uses video, installation, drawing, photography, and performance as his main mediums. In 2024, he is a participating artist at the Venice Biennale curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
