Amar C. Bakshi, Artist, Founder of Shared Studios, and SNF Agora Visiting Fellow
What happens when two strangers step into a space designed for nothing but conversation? In 2014, Amar C. Bakshi placed a gold shipping container in a public park and connected it, via immersive video technology, to another container thousands of miles away. Inside, participants came face-to-face, full-body, as if in the same room. What began as an artistic experiment quickly evolved into Portals—a global network of interconnected spaces designed to foster dialogue across divides of nationality, class, and ideology.
This talk traces the evolution of Portals as both a public art initiative and an infrastructural intervention in democratic discourse. From refugee camps to corporate boardrooms, Portals have functioned as spaces for radical listening, civic experimentation, and policy engagement, revealing how physical presence and deep conversation can disrupt entrenched social divisions.
Through this journey, Bakshi will explore the broader implications of art as infrastructure—how artistic interventions can reshape the public sphere, challenge the instrumentalization of conversation, and provide alternative spaces for deliberation. The session will also examine the tensions between artistic autonomy and institutional dependence, considering how socially engaged projects navigate the legal, economic, and political realities of scaling an idea.
At a time when democratic discourse is increasingly fractured, Portals offer a case study in how art can create spaces that are neither commercial, governmental, nor ideological—but fundamentally human.
About the presenter:
Amar C. Bakshi is the founder of Shared_Studios Portals, a global public art initiative that creates spaces for profound, face-to-face conversations between strangers across political, economic, and social divides. (Check out a 3m overview video or a longer 30m PBS documentary on the initiative). Amar’s work has been featured at the United Nations, the U.S. Congress, and museums and institutions worldwide. A former journalist and policy advisor, he holds degrees from Harvard, Yale Law School, and Johns Hopkins SAIS.
Where: SNF Agora Conference Room and Zoom