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Paper short abstract:

This paper provokes an imagination of shadowy protector figures through permeability and preservation. How do they interact with a landscape, and what could they want to protect? Drawing from the ancient myths of Rakhandars, this process weaves personal stories with the land and history of Goa.

Paper long abstract:

They say a shadowy figure walks around each village every night, keeping things in check, looking after the place and its people - guiding lost children home, keeping thieves away or straightening people who misuse their land. They take the same route around fields, forests and wetlands, meandering their way through the dark. If someone builds a wall obstructing their way, they find it in ruins the next morning.

Altodi Poltodi (This shore, That shore) is a performative paper presentation that seeks to find/build connections and bridges between the inside and outside, between the insider and outsider and between the world and its shadowy reflection. This paper draws parallels between Goan mythologies concerning the landscape and how people interact with it in the present. Goa, being a delta, is full of lakes and rivers on the one side and the sea on the other. Meandering through these waters, we attempt to meet in the middle (on a bridge or a boat) through collaborative explorations to arrive at a new form of finding a home.

This paper is a culmination and reflection of a year-long research project that led to an interactive art installation assembled at the Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts for a month in April 2022. The project was supported by the Goa Open Arts Catalyst Grant 2021.

Altodi Poltodi is a collaborative project undertaken by RS (Amrita Barua and Savyasachi Anju Prabir).