Cyril Wenceslaus Oliver Mendes

This Foundation Project, implemented by IFA under Explorations will explore the maritime ecologies along the Konkan, bringing together boatbuilding, material knowledge, labour, oral histories, and changing coastal environments, combining digital audio-visual material, photographic studies, sound, field recordings, and material traces. Cyril Wenceslaus Oliver Mendes is the Coordinator for this project. 

Cyril Wenceslaus Oliver Mendes (aka Wency Mendes) is a Goa-based visual artist, cinematographer, and curator whose practice spans community-led research, photo-media, interactive installations, and documentary filmmaking centered on water, ecology, and food. He holds an MA in Visual Arts from Ambedkar University Delhi and a BA in Philosophy from St. Stephen’s College. Mendes is a recipient of the Swiss Art Council & Pro Helvetia Co-Creation Grant, the FICA & SAF Public Art Grant, the Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation Grant, and the VM Salgaocar Fellowship. His work has been widely exhibited internationally, including at the Lahore Biennale and Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts. Given his experience, Wency Mendes is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

The project titled Shaped by Water, Made by Hand – Maritime Ecologies of the Konkan, will investigate the maritime ecologies and boatbuilding traditions along India’s Konkan coast, from Malvan to Honnavar. Wency will approach wooden vessels, not merely as functional objects, but as living intersections of forest resources, labour, memory, and seasonal coastal rhythms, through sustained site visits across estuaries, jetties, and workshops. Moving beyond conventional, extractive photography, Wency will examine how changing climate patterns, forest deletion, and port expansion alter local craft traditions, and community livelihoods, integrating ecological mythologies, such as the regional veneration of the boat goddess Naukayanchi Devi, grounding these vanishing maritime practices within deeper vernacular living traditions. 

The artistic research process will include utilising low-fidelity participatory tools like disposable cameras, inviting shared authorship, alongside material imprints, field rubbings, ambient soundscapes, and the gathering of oral histories, with consent from the communities. Wency will compile these gathered elements into a fluid archive comprising annotated image sequences, draft audio compositions, field notes, and layouts for an artist’s book. 

The outcome of the project will include digital audio-visual material, photographic studies, sound, and field recordings. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be audio-visual and photographic documentation of the artistic process.   

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Practice programme in the manner in which it attempts to envision “indigenous-eco-futurism,” through vernacular knowledge systems and maritime material culture, framing them as adaptive systems capable of shaping sustainable ecological futures.  

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm by convening an online gathering of artists coordinating Explorations projects. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.