Founders | Women Series | Anahita Kayan

Women series is a monthly edit to explore creative entrepreneurship amongst women globally. Through this series, we wish to understand creative journeys, challenges, inspirations and develop a community. This month we interviewed Anahita Kayan of The space at 9/2, Founder of a concept space in Kolkata, India.

Tell me about how your artistic journey started. Did you have artistic influences growing up? What education/ training did you receive?

My journey started quite by chance, though I have always been creatively inclined and intrigued by all elements of design and retail. At college, I pursued Economics as it seemed right then (and I still don't think it was a bad decision). A few years after returning to India, I decided to start a digital archival of essays, travel stories, fitness mantras and recipes and I was keen to launch it with something called The Guerrilla Art Project. For this, we invited 6 people from different creative fields to come and interpret an old abandoned space (which is now outside my gallery). This made me realise that I enjoy curating and visual design and I have never looked back since.

“I enjoy curating and visual design and I have never looked back since. ”

What has been the source of inspiration for you( people, places, cultures etc)

Publications, architecture and poetry

Could you share the conceiving of The space at 9/2 project? We are curious to know about the process and its development.

The Space At 9/2 was conceived as a platform and 'space' for artists to be themselves and not produce pieces and collections based on market trends or what would work - essentially, it also allowed me to channel my vision, in a way I thought it should be. It has now matured to also work with and consult brands to communicate their true identity through visual, photography and space design.