“My journey is an ongoing blend of tradition, community, and innovation. From rolling simple clay coils as a child to shaping my identity as an artist, the soil remains at the heart of my story.” … Bhisaji Gadekar

The earth whispers through the rift, echoing the songs from soil to clay to touch to mould to sound.

Matiyecho Aawaz is an elegy to the potter community of Goa, an attempt to knead the anecdotes of everydayness, shaping clay to form testaments to resilience and levitating forgotten dialogues.

Since its antiquity, Goa is animating with terracotta hues, sustained even during the Portuguese rule, now faces the abrasion of its artisanal heritage. The potters, once the lifeblood of village rituals and household crafts, are now confronting by industrial alternatives and dwindling recognition. Through the stepping, footing, pressing, shaping of clay and the voices imbued within earthen vessels, Bhisaji will draft his presence not just as a yarn of a potter but also a storyteller of ancestral wisdom, aspirations, and the silent struggles of artisans. A durational performance that melds sound, touch, and memory, this work transforms the venue Kala Academy into a living, breathing landscape of cultural resonance. With every coil and sculpted form, the artist will reveal a mosaic of community, and the transformative power of earth. This performance does not merely recount—it invites us to listen, touch, smell, remember and reimagine.

Join us for to breath these riddles of soil and clay.

Sound Design by: Akshay Bhise and Nidhi Mardolkar

Writing Support by: Neha Timande

Audio Recording by: Potter Community of Goa.

Artist Bio:

Born in the Mandrem village of Goa, Bhisaji Gadekar belongs to a peasantry family and raised in the embrace of the soil. His earliest curiosity with clay began with the playful engagements with the Idol makers in his childhood at home, coiling the clay intrigued him to commence a journey to become an artist. Bhisaji initially sought admission to a formal institute but faced rejection due to his age. Undeterred, he joined a company specializing in hand-painted Azulejos tiles near Bicholim, a village celebrated as the pottery hub of Goa. There, he trained under senior artists and potters, laying a strong foundation for his skill. The following year, he enrolled in a master pottery course in Khanapur, Belgaum, where he spent three months mastering the art. This marked the start of Bhisaji’s journey as a potter—not by birth, but by choice. Over the years, he continued to refine his skills by working closely with master potters and experts in Goa, Mumbai, and Pune, enriching his artistic vision and technical expertise.

This journey of resilience and dedication shaped Bhisaji's identity as a multidisciplinary artist. Alongside his pottery practice, he pursued higher education in fine arts, earning a Bachelor’s degree from the Goa College of Art in 2012 and a Master’s in Sculpture from the Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, in 2014.

Bhisaji's contributions to sculpture, installation, and performance art have earned him widespread recognition. He was awarded the Emerging Artist Award 2020 by the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) and the Junior Fellowship from the Ministry of Culture, India, in 2017-18. His work has been showcased at prestigious platforms such as the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and Serendipity Arts Festival. An active member of the Goa Artists Collective, Bhisaji continues to innovate while fostering connections between artisan communities and contemporary artistic practices.

Rolling Museum is a curatorial program that transforms the concept of a museum into a dynamic, moving entity, weaving art seamlessly into the fabric of urban, sub-urban or rural life. Rooted in the philosophical idea of 'praxis'—the process by which theory, lessons, or skills are enacted, embodied, or realized—this program invites artists/ groups/ collectives to engage in various kinds of public interventions and community engagement programs. Decentralizing the museum experience, the programme tries to redefine public space as ever-evolving cultural landscape, encouraging dialogic acts, where artists choose their sites for the performance or any sort of engagement program with communities, educational institutes, artist-run studios, art institutions etc. The initiative not only democratizes the access to the artistic expressions, but also making the public sphere itself a living, breathing museum in perpetual motion.