A Hand’s Turn is a publication of Lenio Kaklea, accompanying her performance A Hand’s Turn.

In this book the choreographer investigates functional, political, and symbolic dimensions of the left-right division, examining the tension between face and mask, body and face.

Our gestures might carry stories of which we are unconscious. In the so-called primitive societies, one could not have a face if one did not wear a mask. In contemporary Western democracies, the opposite holds true: Individuals can experience identity only by maintaining an uncovered face. If the quest for transparency has become the core of our liberal democracies and a trivial tool of state control, how do our bodies remain opaque and mysterious, after all? — Lenio Kaklea