We are a group of farmers, artists, women, makers, …. We are a people of different ideas and identities. But the idea and identity that connects us all and make us a collective, is that we all are living and working in and around a village and are concerned about it. This village is Paradsinga, situated in Sausar Tehsil of Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh, India.

Our village is just like any other Indian village, undergoing migration, people aspiring for jobs to escape the poverty ridden circle of agriculture, patriarchal, people trying to stick to their traditions & superstitions & religious beliefs, …

With this journey in the backdrop, we are trying to build our collective consciousness around understanding this journey, repercussions of it, the vitalities and the trivialities of it and be expressive while doing it. This expression comes out through our work and artworks. Sometimes these artworks take the form of landarts, sometimes they take the form of yarn artefacts made from the non-GM (Genetically Modified) IPR-free (Intellectual Property Rights) non-hybrid indigenous cotton we grow. These expressions also take the form of plantable seed papers and eatable artefacts made from the organic produce from our farms. Apart from these, we also use performance, making, etc. as other forms of expressions.

For us, art is not just a professional practice, but a way of expressing ourselves in the ways we find meaningful about the things we encounter while living a rural life in Paradsinga. & that is what our collective, Gram Art Project, is about – A collective space for us to express about our concerns as a live part of an average Indian village in the forms and media which are socially and ecologically non-exploitative.