In The Teaching of the Hands, artists Carolina Caycedo and David de Rozas synthesise their research to create an experimental meditation on the region’s histories of colonisation, migration, and ecological disaster. The piece, narrated by Chairman Mancias, layers oral histories, speculative reenactments, observational and found footage, weaving together scenes from the present day to thousands of years in the past. The Teaching of the Hands highlights the environmental memories and divergent cosmologies within Somi Se’k, where both Indigenous and settler knowledge coexist.
Presented as part of Serpentine’s Back to Earth project.
About the artists
Carolina Caycedo (b. 1978) is a multidisciplinary artist known for her performances, video, artist’s books, sculptures, and installations that examine environmental and social issues. She has held residencies at the DAAD in Berlin and The Huntington in San Marino; received funding from Creative Capital and Prince Claus Fund; participated in the Chicago Architecture, Sao Paulo, Venice, Berlin, and Whitney Biennials; recent solo shows include ICA Boston and MCA Chicago. She is a 2020-2022 Inaugural Borderlands Fellow at the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands, Arizona State University, and Vera List Center for Art and Politics, The New School.
David de Rozas (b. 1979) is a multidisciplinary artist and award-winning filmmaker whose practice merges experimental documentary and contemporary art forms, revisiting and relocating the politics of memory. De Rozas films have been screened in festivals and film curated series worldwide, such as Visions du Réel, Sheffield Doc/Fest, True/False, and Kassel DocFest. His recent film ‘GIVE’ was nationally broadcasted on POV, and won Best Short Documentary at FullFrame and Best Experimental at the Smithsonian African American Film Festival. He is a 2021 Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts.
