The Cheetah’s Return , 2026

Archival Research & Augmented Reality
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum
Cologne, Germany


Through archival research and augmented reality, The Cheetah’s Return examines the story of the Indian cheetah as a lens through which to explore the meaning of return. Often associated with home, origins, and the recovery of what has been lost, return is also shaped by migration, displacement, colonial violence, and the impossibility of fully recovering certain pasts.

Moving between the permanent collection of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum and the temporary exhibition r e t u r n, the project traces the history of the Indian cheetah, from its role in colonial hunting practices and its eventual extinction in India to its contemporary reintroduction. Combining archival images with augmented reality, it investigates how animals, historical narratives, and collective memories become entangled with colonial power and the construction of national identity.

The project approaches return as both an ecological intervention and a political narrative, questioning how the recovery of a lost past can become a nationalist project. It asks what is restored, rewritten, or erased when return is mobilised as a promise of historical continuity, and considers the tensions between colonial legacies, postcolonial memory, and contemporary visions of the nation.