The Traveling Hand

this exhibition will reopen on 20/01/21

You can visit the exhibition from 17 October The Traveling Hand at TENT Rotterdam attend. This playful game installation revolves around a macabre archaeological find in Goa, India. Artist Gayatri Kodikal invites you on a poetic and forensic journey of discovery through different places and historical periods. Through interactive game elements, archive material, films and documentary fragments you expose a complex web of geopolitical histories.

In 2005, archaeologists found the remains of a severed hand at the ruins of a Portuguese church in the mangrove forest of Goa. It is believed to be the long-sought hand of Georgian Queen Ketevan, who was tortured and murdered in Persia in the 17th century.

The rhizome-like mangrove landscape, where the remains of the queen had been decaying beneath the surface all along, formed a haunting image for Kodikal for interlocking histories that were erased. This image inspired her to develop a form of play in which the Queen's hand offers entry into a labyrinth of stories that take you through the intrigues of 400 years of geopolitics and masculine display of power, against the background of colonial expansion and the resulting religious struggle.

The Traveling Hand undermines dominant historical narratives and archaeological approaches. The game installation is home to stories of a variety of witnesses and researchers who have long remained underground, and historical discoveries that are usually shrouded in secrecy and mystery. The non-linear game format of The Traveling Hand opens space for new associations and thoughts. While you as a player navigate through different positions and perspectives, new connections arise within the layered narrative game environment. The curator of this project is Katayoun Arian.

You will find more information about the exhibition and current visitor information here.