Raqs Media Collective was formed in 1992 by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. “Raqs” is a word in Persian, Arabic, and Urdu，signifying a state entered into through spinning or whirling that intensifies consciousness and existence.  Raqs take this to mean “kinetic contemplation” and a restless and energetic entanglement with the world, and with time. Raqs practices across several media: making installation, sculpture, video, performance, text, lexica, and curation. Their work finds them at the intersection of contemporary art, philosophical speculation and historical inquiry.

As an artist collective, Raqs has exhibited their works in major international exhibitions such as Documenta (2002), Venice Biennale (2003, 2005, 2015), and Shanghai Biennale (2010). They served as the chief curators for the 11th Shanghai Biennale Why Not Ask Again in 2016 and as the artistic directors for Yokohama Triennale in 2020. Recently, they curated Hungry for Time, a curatorial project initiated in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna’s collection (2021), focusing on the theme of epistemic disobedience. In 2023, they collaborated with the Yinka Shonibare Foundation/G.A.S. to become the inaugural artists-in-residence for the World Meteorological Station of Nigeria’s Ejeba and the World Weather Network.

In 2010, Raqs participated in the West Heavens: India-China Summit on Social Thought forum. In 2017, they were involved in the Latento: Considering the Potential of the Contemporary Moment workshop.