Tantalus; Or, a Brief History of Looking Up
a reading/lecture/performance by Perishable Goods Collective

Friday, 23 October 2026
6 - 8 PM
At FICA Reading Room, New Delhi
 

What does it take to keep a man inside his curse? What kind of machinery must be set in motion to ensure that his punishment continues, endlessly and without interruption? Who maintains it, and what happens to those made responsible for its upkeep?

Drawing from the Greek myth of Tantalus, condemned to an eternity of thirst and hunger, with water that recedes when he reaches for it, fruit that withdraws when he tries to grasp it, and a stone perpetually hanging over him, A Brief History…examines the machinery that keeps a curse in motion.

In this work-in-progress sharing, Perishable Goods Collective invites audiences into an evolving performance and multimedia project that brings the myth into conversation with the infrastructural refusals of caste: the rituals of purity, the architectures of segregation, and the existential weights that Brahmanism places on Dalit lives.

Audiences will encounter a participatory live reading, fragments of performance, and an exploration of four characters caught up in the maintenance of Tantalus’ curse. Rather than focusing solely on the man condemned, the work turns towards the mechanism around him: the labour, vigilance, routines, and negotiations required to ensure that his punishment continues. What does an entire system look like when its purpose is to keep someone serving a sentence indefinitely? What kinds of work must be performed, and by whom, to make that sentence feel inevitable?

Moving through perpetual limbos and fatal accidents, waits and weights, impact points and landing surfaces, this sharing opens up the questions, materials, and experiments shaping the collective’s ongoing process.