Where the City Meets the Sea is an exhibition that brings together photographs, stories, recipes, field notes, and fragments of lived experience gathered through the Mumbai Koli Project. Designed as an intimate, walk-through space, it invites visitors to listen, read, and spend time with the people, places, and everyday practices that shape Mumbai’s fishing communities.
Key Details
Event
Launch of Where the City Meets the Sea — the Mumbai Koli Project exhibition
Hosted by
The Locavore × G5A warehouse in collaboration with the impact team of Against the Tide
Date: Saturday, 14 February 2026
Time: 4:30 pm – 7 pm (programme begins 5:30 pm)
Venue: G5A warehouse, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai
Format: Exhibition viewing, opening short remarks, and a community-led conversations
Audience: 40-50 guests
Cost: Rs. 395
Exhibition Run: 14, 15, 17, 18 February from 5–8 pm (Monday closed)
Optional: Post-event self-paid dinner at Mahim Koli Seafood Plaza
Open across multiple days—and installed in The Study at G5A warehouse—the exhibition focuses not only on what was created, but on how the work unfolded—the walks, conversations, and relationships that shaped what could be documented. The emphasis remains on lived context: work tied to tides and seasons, food practices passed through generations, and the constant negotiation between coastal livelihoods and an expanding city. Community members are not framed as subjects to be observed, but as collaborators and knowledge holders whose voices guide the narrative.
Through the project, we also deliberately moved away from treating “fish” as a generic ingredient and instead focused on naming and celebrating specific, lesser-known species central to Koli cooking but often absent from mainstream food conversations. Informed by species documentation from InSeason Fish and by conversations with fishers and cooks, the fish spotlights and home-tested recipes trace what actually arrives with the tides—ribbonfish, nevti, bombil, mud crabs, and many others—and how decisions around what to cook, sell, or preserve shift with seasonality, weather, and market realities. These culinary narratives connect ecology directly to the kitchen, making visible the everyday labour that sustains the city’s seafood culture.
Launch Evening Program
The launch evening unfolds across two spaces at G5A warehouse—the exhibition in The Study and a gathering on The Terrace. This is followed by brief remarks by Anuradha Parikh, founder of G5A warehouse, along with a reflection by filmmaker Sarvnik Kaur on the film’s impact journey. ChefTZac and Bhavesh Koli then share insights into the recipe documentation process and how food knowledge moves between home kitchens, community spaces, and restaurants.
The core of the evening is a moderated conversation with community members featured in the project, along with the researchers and volunteers who worked alongside them. Contributors including Ganesh Nakhawa, Rakesh Koli, and others share their experiences directly, with translation support where needed.
After the programme at G5A warehouse, those who wish can continue the evening with an informal, self-paid group dinner at Mahim Koli Seafood Plaza in Mahim Koliwada.
Following the launch, the exhibition remains open across multiple days, allowing visitors to engage with the material at their own pace and spend time with the stories more independently.
The Mumbai Koli Project is the official impact campaign of the documentary film ‘Against the Tide’, led by The Locavore in close collaboration with Sarvnik Kaur, Ganesh Nakhawa, and Sonia Parekh. It is supported by the Doc Society’s Climate Story Fund which enables independent media storytelling and impact strategies from around the world.
“Come at four,” he had said, the hour when the day’s work reaches its busiest rhythm of filling and dispatching the tiffins.
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