Hastas

In Hastas, an ongoing artistic research project by Nitish Bhardwaj which will also become a performance, the hand is the primary instrument of performing. Hastas is a Sanskrit word for hands, or hand gestures. The projects builds on earlier explorations of hand gestures in different performances, as poetic and aesthetic material.

In an earlier project Hands Whisper Quietly, a collaboration with Lawrence Kudria, Nitish Bhardwaj used virtual reality to create participatory situations where one could only communicate through each other’s hands, isolated from the body. Next to VR, the project also utilised machine learning systems that live interpreted hand gestures.

Nitish Bhardwaj now continues his research as a solo performer, while in dialogue and mentorship with dramaturg Bart Van den Eynde. In Hastas, the performance, he returns to the live body as an exploration to how hands can carry attention, memory, and intention on stage. Physical experiments and poetic text fragments allow meaning to emerge through gesture, rhythm, repetition, and stillness.

The residency at workspacebrussels functions as an open laboratory, rather than a production space, with the question of how acting can start from the hands.