Science Gallery begins year-long expo on theme 'Calorie: A Breakdown'

Bengaluru: The Science Gallery in Bengaluru has begun a year long exhibition ‘Calorie: A Breakdown’, which aims to showcase a variety of exhibits and programmes revolving around food security, nutrition, waste, agriculture and the economics of food.

Several programmes like walkthroughs, lectures and workshops will also be organised on the occasion. It features 34 installations around the themes of ‘buy, grow, cook, eat, digest and waste’. Installations vary in size from enormous to tiny and are curated to show the many as pects of food from its nutritional value, cultural practices and social in equalities.

The main hall has two large pieces. One is called ‘Long Hanging Fruits’ by Indonesian artist Elia Nurvista, which is about the exploitative practices involved in obtaining palm oil in the world’s largest producer, Indonesia.

The other piece is ‘Farmer is a Wrestler’, which involves a large mat, like a wrestling mat, with several numbers and lines that are made to guide an at tendee to take up certain positions of bodily strain, mimicking both wrestling and farming.

There is also a room dedicated to an installation of a large translucent stomach created from man-made materials like plastic and rubber by two artists, Sikau and Pubalova. The in stallation takes up an entire large room in which speakers play stomach noises on a loop.

Rakesh, a visitor, said that the exhibition was very valuable and much needed, he said, “Especially for kids, as they need to know such infor mation. There’s a lot of information about food security and nutrition, and so on. There is a wide range of topics as well.”

Events are also planned, such as the lecture on Sunday by economist Madhura Swaminathan titled ‘Is India Food Secure?’ In the lecture, the speaker ventured into the topic of food security backed by data and her own experience in the Indian Statistical Institute and her work in food security, rural development and agriculture.

She said that the majority of India’s population is undernourished and pointed to the many factors, such as lack of education and accessibility to nutritious food, for India’s struggles with nutrition, even though the country is one of the highest agricultural producers in the world.