Museum of Debris / ملبہ (Malba)

 

Overview

The Vasl Artists' Association proudly presents the sixth iteration of its year-long museum project, themed ‘Museum of Debris / ملبہ (Malba).’

Vasl Artists' Association invites artists currently living and working in Karachi to submit proposals that critically, poetically, or experimentally explore the theme of debris. The project aims to foster dialogue around urban transformation, environmental responsibility, collective memory, and the hidden narratives embedded within the material residues of contemporary life.

Building upon the success of previous years, this project explores debris not merely as waste or rubble, but as a material, environmental, social, historical, and psychological condition that shapes contemporary urban life. Situated within Karachi's rapidly transforming landscape, Museum of Debris invites artists to investigate the fragments left behind by development, demolition, displacement, consumption, and neglect. In a city perpetually caught between breaking down and building up, debris becomes both evidence and archive. It becomes a record of transformation, survival, and memory.

Vasl Artists' Association invites artists currently living and working in Karachi to submit proposals that critically, poetically, or experimentally explore the theme of debris. The project aims to foster dialogue around urban transformation, environmental responsibility, collective memory, and the hidden narratives embedded within the material residues of contemporary life.

 

Project Themes

Museum of Debris challenges artists to engage with questions such as:

Urban transformation: Demolition sites, infrastructural failures, anti-encroachment drives, construction waste, and the residues of rapid urban development.

Environmental concerns: Industrial pollution, coastal waste, damaged ecosystems, discarded materials, and the unseen environmental consequences of urban growth.

Material afterlives: Recycling economies, reuse, repair, and the circular lives of objects after they have been discarded.

Accidental archives: Everyday refuse, domestic remnants, political ephemera, broken technologies, and objects that document changing social realities.

Psychological landscapes: Memory, grief, anxiety, trauma, and the emotional residues that accumulate within individuals and communities.

Histories of displacement: What remains after erasure, relocation, abandonment, or loss? How do fragments carry traces of people, places, and experiences?

 

Application Guidelines

Project Duration: August 2026 - March 2027

Eligibility: This opportunity is only open to artists currently living and working in Karachi.

Application Deadline: Sunday, July 12, 2026 (11:55 PM)

 

Submission Requirements:

Complete the application form.

Submit a project proposal describing your proposed project for Museum of Debris / ملبہ (Malba). Explain the concept, its relationship to the theme, your intended approach, materials, and expected outcomes (maximum 1000 words). You may support your proposal with one reference image and a brief caption.

Submit a single PDF (maximum 10 MB) containing your CV and portfolio. The portfolio may include up to 8 images and/or hyperlinks to up to 2 video works. Please ensure all links are active and accessible. Include artwork details where relevant (title, year, medium, dimensions, and brief description).

Follow the file naming conventions provided in the application form.

 

Click here to apply >

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Sponsored by: Adnan Amjad , Ziad Bashir , Canvas Gallery & Sayeeda Leghari