Bhubaneswar: Odisha Craft Odyssey (OCO), a pioneering cultural initiative by the MGM Foundation and Bhubaneswar Experimental Art and Design Studio (BEADS), unveiled its second landmark research exhibition titled ‘The Popular Pipli: Threads of Memory, Networks of Power’ at Bhubaneswar Lalit Kala Akademi Sunday.
Curated by Sibdas Sengupta, the exhibition presents a compelling narrative around one of Odisha’s most iconic yet critically under-examined traditions, the vibrant Appliqué craft of Pipli.
More than just an exhibition, The Popular Pipli marks the public culmination of OCO’s 2025 residency programme, which embedded contemporary artistes within the artisan community in Pipli.
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These residencies are a cornerstone of OCO’s unique approach, blending ethnographic research, fieldwork, and cross-disciplinary collaborations to challenge the divide between fine arts and crafts.
This edition brought together three contemporary practitioners, Madhulika S Naidu, who traced Pipli’s historical trajectory through motifs, techniques, and social hierarchies, culminating in an installation exploring coexisting craft epistemologies, Rhea Moras, whose participatory projects highlighted stitching techniques as embodied knowledge, particularly foregrounding women’s voices and collective authorship and Raj Maurya, who employed archival methods and cyanotype to explore labor networks, memory, and the repetitive rhythms of craft-making.
PNN