With the idea of rewriting history, this installation, which is a replica of the ship Victoria, imagines how different the Filipino culture would be if the events of history swayed in another direction.

The Victoria is the first ship that circumnavigated the globe and the only ship that survived from Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet. On the journey from Spain, Magellan chanced upon the islands of the Philippines in 1521. While Magelllan himself died in a battle on one of the islands, the Victoria escaped with the scribe and managed to return back to Spain. The Victoria’s return to Spain led to 300 years of Spanish colonisation and Christianisation of the Philippines.

In this work, the Victoria is sank within the 20 x 20 sqm gallery room in the Philippines and hypothetically never made it back to Spain.