ReverseForward is a GameLab that brings diverse people, skill sets, and perspectives together to discuss and critique the role of colonialism and its impact on contemporary societies. The key thematics of the lab are reimagining decolonial praxis in culture producers - both institutions and individuals, the role of play and narrative strategies, and social game design.
The conversation around colonial pasts has largely remained confined to academia and circles of history writing. In the ReverseForward audio series, we connect historical perspectives with the perspectives of practitioners in culture and the arts to expand the debate and offer alternative entry points in the larger debate around colonialism.
The ReverseForward audio series is a collaboration between the Goethe-Institut, the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne and Berlin-based Cashmere Radio.
How are cultural institutions like museums approaching questions on decoloniality? What challenges and responsibilities towards governments and source communities are connected with debates around restitution? Gain insights into how these issues are tackled in post-colonial societies with Latika Gupta (Delhi) in conversation with Nanette Snoep (Cologne, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum) and Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Delhi, Raqs Media Collective).
Nanette Snoep is a Dutch anthropologist and curator. She has been heading ethnographic museums in Germany since 2016 and is currently the director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museums – Kulturen der Welt in Cologne. Before that, she was the director of three ethnographic museums in Saxony, Germany, where she experimented with new exhibition formats.
Shuddhabrata Sengupta is an artist and curator with the Raqs Media Collective based in Delhi, India. Raqs Media Collective performs a variety of roles as artists, curators, and philosophical agents, creating various works such as installations, videos, photographs, and more. They have exhibited internationally at events such as Documenta and various biennales.
Latika Gupta is an art historian and curator based in Delhi. She has worked as an associate editor at Marg Publications and is part of the editorial collective for '100 Histories of 100 Worlds in 1 Object' and an associate editor of South Asian Studies. Her research focuses on the material and visual culture of the Himalayas, particularly Buddhist monastic art and rituals, as well as museum studies, including the meaning-making of ritual and everyday objects.
Games, integral to human life from ancient times, now raise debates on how they encode societal beliefs into rules and narratives. This includes perpetuating imperialist and chauvinist ideologies through stereotypes and victory-driven logics. Avni Sethi (Ahmedabad) discusses addressing power imbalances and bias in games with Dhruv Jani (Ahmedabad, Studio Oleomingus) and Allan Cudicio (Berlin, Twin Drums).
After marketing and game design experiences in large and small companies, Italo-Ghanaian game designer Allan Cudicio founded his Riot Games backed studio, Twin Drums. Based between Berlin, Germany and Accra, Ghana, he is currently working on the PC game "The Wagadu Chronicles' ', the first Afrofantasy MMORPG. Allan's big passions are Dungeons & Dragons, fried plantain, dogs, cycling and justice.
Avni Sethi is an interdisciplinary practitioner whose work revolves around culture, memory, space, and the body. She conceptualized and designed the Conflictorium, a Museum of Conflict in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and Raipur Chhattisgarh. She serves as the Artistic Director of the museum and is also a trained dancer who explores the relationship between intimate audiences and the performing body.
Dhruv Jani is an artist at, and the founder of the independent game studio: Oleomingus. He studies postcolonial writing and interactive-fiction, and explores the use of video game spaces as possible sites of protest and reparation. His practice examines histories occluded by colonial authority, and his games have explored how such stories are recorded and remembered by individuals, organisations, and archives - especially in the form of hypertext.
The term "Decolonial" encompasses ongoing processes of undoing colonization and critiques it as an impractical project for total emancipation. How is the concept of "decoloniality" understood in India and Germany today? Explore this discussion with Amarnath Praful (Gandhinagar), Vera Marušić (Cologne, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum), and Sarnath Bannerjee (Berlin and Delhi) as they delve into the relationship between decolonial practices in local contexts and the broader frameworks of institutions and nation-states.
Sarnath Banerjee has authored five graphic novels published by Penguin and Harper Collins, with a sixth in progress supported by a grant from the Berlin Senate. His work has been showcased at prestigious Biennales, Art Fairs, and international shows.
Amarnath Praful is a visual artist, writer, and teacher focused on contemporary photographic practices, representational politics, intermedia image practices, and cinema studies. He is a faculty member at the Photography Design master's program at the National Institute of Design, Gandhinagar, and is influenced by the cultural and political histories of Kerala, India.
Vera Marušić is a Program and Strategy Planning Consultant at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne, Germany. Her experience includes various positions in cultural/arts and higher education projects for institutions like Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, HELLERAU - European Center for Contemporary Arts Dresden, Dresden University of Fine Arts, and Dresden State Art Collections.
‘Somewhere Like Utopia - Are We There Yet’ is a collective game played by 3 or more players. The players are expected to reach ‘Utopia’ which is the end target of the game. All decisions (positive or negative) will need to be made collectively. The game aims to make participants realize that a society needs to think of a common good and needs to work together to succeed.
A choose-your-own-adventure game that follows a queer leopard on their journey of becoming a dancer! In this game, players must answer 10 multiple-choice questions. Each option carries a subtle meaning that leads to the discovery of the Pangolin's secret – a dancing Pangolin!
Homeless teens from the future enter an old museum and find stolen artefacts. They get trapped inside the museum. By using a time machine, they travel to their land, learn about the rich culture, folk dance, and languages, and find out about where these artefacts are from and all the massacres that happened in the past. Winning is an emptied museum with all the teens knowing their real homes.
The GameLab was anchored by practitioners from different fields from museums and design, to teaching and gaming. They were Vera Marušić (Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum Cologne), Laxmi Khanolkar (Apar Games), Amarnath Praful (Image maker, writer, teacher), Thomas Lilge (GameLab Berlin), and Avni Sethi (Conflictorium / Museum of Conflict). The anchors headed separate groups, working together to create games on four varied, but connected thematics.
