Help crowd-fund Zine Mela (Turf edition)
Donate here
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5th July - Riso Induction & Fantasy Zine Fairs
1pm-4pm
£10 Booking essential - limited to 12 places. Book here
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11th July Talks Panel on Collectives with Documenta / Lumbung
Live stream/ Register here
1pm-3pm BST UK time
with Projek Rabak, Annie Jael Kwan, Gerimis, Hamja Ahsan.
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Carrom (2-4 players) Carrom is a traditional South Asian tabletop game where players flick a heavy striker disk to knock smaller pieces into four corner pockets - like “finger billards”. The game is deeply embedded in social fabric of South Asia as a multi-generational, communal game. In South Asia, it is commonly played in cafes, local clubs, and street corners. Games last 20-30 minutes.
Momo card game - Nepal. Suitable for young kids and families.
Himalayan Monster card game - Nepal. Suitable for young kids and families.
Parcheesi /Pachisi (Original Indian Ludo) 2-4 players (30 minutes games, 45 minutes 4 playes)- India. Parcheesi is modern a classic race board game where four players roll dice to move their four pawns out of the starting area, around the board, and safely into the central home space while strategically blocking and capturing opponents' pieces.
Bagh-Chal (Goats and Tiger) - Nepal
Samrajya - Nepals 1st ever contemporary board game.
Carrom and other South Asian board games such Pachisi (ancient ludo), Bagh-Chal (Goats and Tigers), as well as original new board games such as Samrajya and Momo card games, designed in Nepal, will be present in the space. The exhibition space envisioned as community hang out, social space for chill and connection.
Zine Mela, the UK’s first South Asian Zine festival, returns to London to Croydon’s Turf Studios Project space, 3rd July - 30th July 2026.
This 3rd edition of the festival returns in the form of a public living room and exhibition of the zine, comics, graphics and archives collection curated by Hamja Ahsan. Hundreds of publications which spans the nations of Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Afghanistan and their local and global diasporas, from South Africa to Malaysia and Norway, to the communities of Croydon, Tooting, and local areas of London.
The transnational collective Lumbung Zine Club (co-curated by Yaner Lim / Ranerrrim of Project Rabak in Malaysia) will collaborate from the Zine Mela. This features zines & publication from artists and collectives the landmark 2022 Exhibition Documenta 15, and their ongoing creative productions. A panel event will take place on 11th July 1pm-3pm reflecting the questions on collectives in Art and Activism, featuring Annie Jael Kwan (co-editor of new book Thinking Collectives / Collective Thinking) and other speakers. The Lumbung zine club collection features zines, art products and printed matter from collectives Indonesia (Ruangrupa & Gudskul), Palestine (Question of Funding) Phillipines (Resbak), Thailand (Baan Noorg), Britto Arts Collective (Bangladesh), Australia (Safdar Ahmed & Can Yanlchinkaya, Richard Bell) & others.
Carrom and other South Asian board games such Pachisi (ancient ludo), Bagh-Chal (Goats and Tigers), as well as original new board games such as Samrajya and Momo card games, designed in Nepal, will be present in the space. The exhibition space envisioned as community hang out, social space for chill and connection.
Archives of historical campaigns against racism, state crime and colonialism are also preserved and documented in the exhibition space, as well comics, zines, photography and ephemera.
The current edition also expands in cassette culture archives, CDs and a listening corner, repositories of living memory and material graphics of music from South Asia and the Lumbung community.
A RISO workshop induction in collaboration with Print Collective, on Fantasy Zine Fairs will be held on the opening weekend on 5th July 1pm-4pm, limited places.
Lead curator Hamja Ahsan will be present in the exhibition space at all times.
