Archive · 18 Jul 2026
Desi Cultures Hosts Fermentation Festival
Desi Cultures is hosting a week-long festival about fermentation.
One important session talks about how fermented foods are connected to identity and power.
Artists Rahee Punyashloka and Bao discuss how these foods relate to smell, purity, space, gender, and work in India.
They also talk about how people from different places deal with food and culture in new cities.
A movie called Axone showed similar ideas by focusing on a fermented soy paste from Nagaland and how people from the North East deal with food and identity in a new city.
The artists will share research and personal stories to explain how fermentation affects society and culture.
Desi Cultures is hosting a week-long fermentation festival.
A key session explores the politics of fermentation and its link to identity and power.
Artists Rahee Punyashloka and Bao discuss how fermented foods interact with notions of smell, purity, space, gender, and labor in India.
The session builds on themes from the film Axone, which used fermented soy paste to explore cultural identity.
The artists will use research, case studies, and lived experiences to unpack the social and cultural meanings of fermentation.
- Who
- Desi Cultures, Artists Rahee Punyashloka and Bao
- What
- Week-long fermentation festival
- When
- Not specified
- Where
- Not specified
- Why
- To explore the politics of fermentation and its link to identity and power
- Event
- Desi Cultures fermentation festival
- Duration
- Week-long
- Key Session
- Politics of fermentation
- Artists
- Rahee Punyashloka and Bao
- Film Reference
- Axone by Nicholas Kharkongor
- Themes
- Caste, gender, politics, identity, smell, purity, space, labor
- Focus
- Fermented foods and cultural interactions