Farmer is a Wrestler | 2025
August 1, 2025
The Science Gallery, Bengaluru
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How do farmers hold their ground in the face of crisis?
In this interactive work, artist duo Thukral and Tagra turn to kushti form of traditional wrestling practiced in rural Punjab and Haryana—to reflect on the struggles of Indian farmers today.
On the mat, the wrestler balances pressure, endurance, and pushback. In the field, the farmer wrestles with erratic weather, shrinking landholdings, rising costs, and falling yields. Both fights demand resilience, yet both hang in limbo.
Guided by numbers on the mat, you are invited to move like a wrestler, embodying the physical and mental negotiations that farmers navigate daily.
Rooted in their personal histories in Punjab, Thukral and Tagra often use games to explore migration, shifting aspirations, and cultural change. Farmer is a Wrestler continues this approach—combining play, memory, and metaphor to ask how survival itself becomes a contest of endurance.