Bobby Rajesh Malhotra: Bhenchod - Indian Rape Culture Simulator (Final Version 1.0)

In September 2015 Bobby Rajesh Malhotra showed the first ‘Prototype Version 1.0’ of his VR-Installation ‘Bhenchod - Indian Rape Culture Simulator’ at 36|Projectcell in Vienna. This follow-up exhibition closes the work in process - circle and presents the
‘Final Version 1.0’.

‘Bhenchod’ is a common Indian slang term and means ‘sister fucker’ or ’the one who fucks his sister?, the sentence ‘teri bhen ko chodu’ translates to ’I?d like to fuck your sister?.

“In 1991 I was in India with my mother. I was young and we were on a bus-ride at night-time. At some point a bunch of drunk men entered the bus and positioned themselves around us. They started yelling at my mother and constantly offended us with ’bhenchod? or ’teri bhen ko chodu?; the overwhelming scent of alcohol indicated that the situation was serious. My mother kept ignoring them by gazing in abstraction at the outside world. Somehow we got away without any further tension and I asked my mother what she was thinking while being offended? She told me that she was trying to distract herself from the situation by thinking about her favorite Bollywood-movie scenes.”

’Bhenchod? is a virtual reality installation, which explores the phenomenon of gang rapes in Indian society and links the problem to the vicious habits of uncritical mass media-consumption in a transition country like India.

The New Delhi gang rape incident in 2012 serves as loose narrational hook and is mixed with autobiographical memories, the viewer is set into a transportation bus moving on the similar course of the road where the cruel incident of Jyoti Singh Pandey happened, in between Palam Vihar and Saket Market. While being harassed by virtual Non-Player-Characters (NPCs), there is this choice given to either distract oneself with Bollywood-movies or to see things the Indian Censor Board never would have wanted you to see, just outside the bus window.

Bobby Rajesh Malhotra
bobbyrajeshmalhotra.tumblr.com

Opening: 03.12.2015 | 6:00 p.m.
Exhibition: 04.12.2015 - 12.12.2015 | daily 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.