A neighbourhood grocery shop, a hand fan, geometric motifs drawn on cow dung structures in a village, and sacred groves in the Thar Desert may appear unrelated at first glance. But at ‘De la Terre à l'Âme (From Soil to Soul)’, a week-long exhibition at Alliance Française de Delhi (AFD), these everyday objects and traditions come together to tell a larger story about sustainability, memory and community rituals.
Organised as part of AFD’s 70th anniversary celebrations, the exhibition, curated by Shailja G Negi, brings together works that explore traditional knowledge systems and practices related to ecology and cultural heritage. The show is on view till June 30.
‘Bitoda Art – Living Geometry of Rural Haryana’ by artist Dr. Asha Kumari caught our eye. The project focuses on ‘bitoda’—hut-like structures made by stacking cow dung cakes that are later sealed with a mixture of cow dung and straw. Before the surface dries, women decorate it with intricate geometric patterns using only their fingers or simple sticks. These cow dung cakes are widely used as a biofuel in villages across India. "I had seen them before, but I had never seen them covered with such beautiful patterns," says Kumari, who first encountered them while travelling between Delhi and Shaheed Hasan Khan Mewati Government Medical College in Nuh, where she's an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry. "Driving through those villages felt like walking through an open-air art gallery." What fascinated her most was the precision of the geometry— the main motifs are parallel lines and concentric circles placed at equal distances.
In one of the artworks, inspired by these bitoda patterns, Kumari paints a six-pointed star contained within a five-sided, house-like geometry boundary. At the exact centre of the star is a concentric circle motif outlined in gold. The work is simple yet elegant. For Kumari, the art carries emotional and social significance beyond its aesthetics. Women gather in small groups to build each other's bitoda, spending hours talking and singing.
As rural households increasingly shift to LPG and modern fuels, Kumari fears both the structures and the art they carry may disappear. “Preserving this art is important. It reflects our heritage. It is also a form of some simple and calming exercise,” she remarks.
Fading handcrafted heritage
The ‘Remembering Hat Pakha’ installation by artist Abishi Sarkar is inspired by the traditional Bengali hand-fan made from bamboo and palm leaves. The intricately crafted fans are illustrated with a variety of doodles, including electric fans, Goddess Durga, and handwritten Bengali text. A total of 60 illustrated hat pakhas are on display.
Sarkar notes that hat pakhas used to exist in almost every Bengali household, but are rarely seen anymore due to the advent of electric fans and air-conditioners. This has threatened the livelihoods of artisan communities. "It is rarely recognised as an artwork," she adds. "But every fan is woven, coloured and stitched by hand. The entire process is craftsmanship."
Nostalgia and aspiration
Another nostalgic installation at the show is ‘Bachpan Ki Dukaan’, created by Jaipur-based food and culture initiative The Kindness Meal in collaboration with Alliance Française de Jaipur and Studio Nandan Ghiya. Designed like a neighbourhood shop, the installation uses audio stories and familiar packaged products to examine how consumer aspirations begin in childhood.
Food researcher Dipali Khandelwal, founder of The Kindness Meal, says the idea emerged while documenting disappearing food cultures among Bhil and Garasia communities in the Mewar belt of Rajasthan. Traditionally, these communities grew or foraged almost everything they consumed, depending on markets only for salt. Over the past decade, inexpensive packaged snacks and beverages have steadily entered remote villages.
Khandelwal points out how these small shops don't just sell food, but also sell aspiration.
She recalls stories collected during fieldwork, including one from a young girl who tried to recreate the iconic Maaza advertisement featuring actor Katrina Kaif using a different beverage because it was the only one available in her village.
Khandelwal also remembers another similar story — of a boy desperately wanting health drinks advertised on television, only to discover later that he did not enjoy them. "The installation is really a satire on our tendency to believe that whatever lies outside our own context is somehow better," she points out.
This exhibition by Kindness Meal resembles a neighbourhood Indian shop, bringing together familiar objects from childhood. A blue wire basket holds small packets of locally processed snacks and hard candies, with a vintage black film camera hanging beneath it. Nearby are a classic Bournvita packet, a toy truck, a weathered Hindu calendar and several other items.
The sacred groves
The exhibition also features ‘Oran – Sacred Groves of the Thar Desert’, developed by Kaner Retreat resort (located in the Thar desert) and collaborators — including Ekayana Travels, visual artist Dr. Madan Meena, photographer Himanshu Lakhwani, botanical artist Malini Saigal, and the Jodhpur-based, Sambhali Trust, which highlights Rajasthan's centuries-old tradition of community-protected forests.
Inspired by the groves surrounding the retreat, founder Sapna Bhatia explores how local communities have long protected biodiversity by collectively agreeing not to cut trees within these landscapes.
"In the desert, people understood that scarce resources were better shared than fought over," she says. These groves were self-sustaining ecological systems. The installation combines botanical illustrations, photography, handcrafted birds created by women from the Sambhali Trust, and a large branch from a fallen tree collected in Delhi. For Bhatia, the contrast is intentional. "On one hand, you have a desert ecosystem that sustains itself through community stewardship," Bhatia adds. "On the other, cities continue losing native trees despite having far greater resources."
Together, the installations encourage visitors to reconsider ordinary objects and practices that often go unnoticed—revealing how they preserve stories of identity, sustainability and memories that remain relevant in a rapidly changing world.