30/03/2025
This year, a new collective performance group based in Hyderabad, in the southeastern region of India, is organizing an event in solidarity with The Same Difference: Equinox to Equinox on March 21, 2025.
The collective addresses the synthesis at the core of the equinox, reflecting on the current situation and its challenges.
The collective performance art event organized by Possible Futures at Mushroom Rock, University of Hyderabad, was a site-responsive intervention that engaged deeply with themes of survival, ecological grief, and human impact. Rooted in the collective’s ethos of interdisciplinary artistic engagement, the performance brought together artists, performers, and researchers to critically examine the entanglements between land, labor, and environmental destruction. Through gestural movements, material, and sound, the performance reflected on the tension between construction and destruction. The stone-breaking, plastic waste, and green mesh pointed to the ways human development threatens natural spaces. It highlighted the struggle between visibility and erasure—Bhanu’s mirrored figure, Shivam’s shifting identities, and Vignesh’s tracings questioning what remains and what disappears. It emphasized the act of listening and witnessing—Manjari’s quiet engagement with stones and Shivam’s animalistic calls fostering an interspecies dialogue beyond words. It underscored the weight of labor and care—from Suresh’s relentless breaking of stones to the collective lifting of the nest, emphasizing the emotional and physical burden of preservation.
Set against the backdrop of Kancha Gachibowli’s contested forest land and the ancient rock formations of the Deccan Plateau, the performance was an exploration of shared responsibility and collective endurance. Possible Futures, as a Hyderabad-based artist collective, has consistently worked at the intersection of artistic practice and critical discourse, fostering dialogues around environmental and socio-political urgencies. This performance was a continuation of the collective’s commitment to creating ephemeral, site-sensitive works that question dominant power structures while advocating for ecological and cultural preservation. By engaging with Mushroom Rock—a site of geographical, cultural, and ecological significance—the collective reaffirmed its stance on land as a living archive, urging a rethinking of urban expansion and environmental degradation.
Ultimately, this performance did not impose a single meaning. Instead, it invited reflection—on our place within the environment, the marks we leave behind, and the ways we choose to protect rather than exploit. The nest—fragile yet resilient—stood as a testament to shared labor, responsibility, and the possibility of renewal. Through this intervention, *Possible Futures* reinforced the radical potential of performance art as an act of resistance and community-making. Rather than imposing a singular narrative, the event created an open-ended space for reflection, inviting audiences to witness, interpret, and engage in a broader conversation on our relationship with land and the responsibilities that come with inhabiting it.
Text by . Vignes ( Co Founder of Possible Futures)
