Farm, River, Community | Tracing micro-ecologies in Delhi

Saturday, 20 September 2025

Registrations open. Write to Programme.Delhi@goethe.de to sign up. 
Limied places!

Inviting registrations for a walkthrough at Farm8 with artist–permaculturist Rashmi Kaleka and architect–designer Vidya Tongbram, followed by a conversation with artist Gyanwant Yadav and farmers Shyam Singh Prajapati, Rajbir Prajapati, and Indra Dev Sharma from Chila Khadar village on farming the Yamuna floodplains. This gathering reflects on working with and rehabilitating Delhi’s microecologies, and on how individual practices intersect with larger community engagements. Over the day, we will traces the tangents, convergences, and divergences that emerge when we think of site and site-based practice in art-making.

Rashmi Kaleka is an artist and urban farmer whose practice draws from her observations and understanding of nature through sounds, visuals, and patterns of habitation and growth across different species. Kaleka’s practice is informed by sound, going back to her childhood in Kenya, where the rhythm and intonation of Swahili, Punjabi and the tribal dialects of her grandparents permeated her consciousness. She has been studying, researching, and practising permaculture and is the founder of Farm8. A multifunctional space, Farm8 serves as an urban farm, kitchen, and a small space for discussion and learning. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai (2024), Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki (2012), the ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (2012), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (2011), and the Kulthuhuset, Stockholm (2011).

Vidya Tongbram is an architect with extensive experience in architecture, urban design and landscape projects. She works as an independent design practice in Delhi, collaborating with like-minded colleagues, craftsmen, and artists. She brings together a curated amalgamation of building materials, technique, and craftsmanship to a project. She has worked with Pradeep Sachdeva Design Associates, Delhi in leading urban design projects such as Redevelopment of Chandni Chowk & Garden of Five Senses, Delhi. A plant enthusiast, observing and documenting plants in different parts of India which resulted in co-authoring two naturalist guide books Trees and Shrubs of India and Garden Flowers of India.

Gyanwant Yadav works across paintings, performances, videos, and mixed-media installations, examining the transformation of rural landscapes and community practices. His works draw from his agrarian roots and village life in Uttar Pradesh, attending to experiences of farmers, changing textures of the agricultural field, its environments and ecologies, and the eventual effects of urbanism on village life. Yadav studied at Delhi College of Art and is a recipient of several awards and residencies, including the Inlaks Fine Art Award (2023), Arthshila X Khoj Artists Residency (2022), and Khoj Peers (2022).  Along with another artist Umesh Singh, he is currently working on a research-led, community-focused initiative along the Delhi Yamuna floodplains with migrant farmers as part of the FICA and SAF facilitated forum Futures in Formation: A Public Art Program 2025.

Gyan will be in conversation with Shyam Singh Prajapati, Rajbir Prajapati, and Indra Dev Sharma, three farmers from the Chila Khadar Village, Mayur Vihar Extension. The Prajapati brothers have lived in the village over many generations and cultivate close to 25 acres of land, farming themselves and also leasing it to other farmers. Indra Dev Sharma is a migrant farmer who relocated to Chila 35 years ago from Jharkhand along with his family and farms on leased land.

Farm8 is easily accessible by car and auto. The nearest metro station is Arjangarh (Yellow Line). Here is the location.