While envisioning the second edition of Sustaina we were fortunate to have come across practices and initiatives that embrace the importance of communities in building sustainable livelihoods and climate action. Learning from their work and legacies, our vision for this edition – “with each seed we sing” – is a celebration of community level, and community-led initiatives that present us a holistic understanding of our food, water, clothing, and waste ecosystems. In this edition, we have diversified our reach and scope of engagement by bringing together artists with filmmakers, designers, educators, grassroots-level organisations, and women empowerment initiatives. Our hope is to make the audience understand that collective action for the future is possible only when all these like-minded stakeholders come together on one platform.

At the core of this exhibition are Sustaina India Fellows 2025, Shubhi Sachan (Material Library of India), Poludas Nagendra Satish (Kora Design Collaborative), and Saraswathi Malluvalasa (Arogya Millet Sisters). Their work is immersed in the advocacy of material literacy, sustainable agriculture for women’s empowerment, and restoration of the cotton ecosystem. The other invited artists of the exhibition present conversations around canal infrastructures, stubble burning, soil regeneration, public transportation, among others. The exhibition will also present the second edition of the Climate Recipes project that focuses on agroecology and food systems in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. This congregation of Sustaina India allows for a cross-pollination of stories, methods, and actions that are necessary to be relayed to future generations.

Curated by Thukral & Tagra + Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi

Organised by Milan George Jacob, Mihir Shah, Vidusshi Pathak, Shruthi Pillai (Council on Energy, Environment and Water)

Assistant Curator
Mirra Venugopalan Lynn