2022, “Revolusi”, animation with soundscape, duration 2:33 min.
(please watch full frame with speaker or headphones on!)
“let’s review and re-listen the interwoven colonial histories”
After a visiting the high-profile and impressive exhibition Revolusi!, including the inspiring installation of the Indonesian artist Timoteus Anggawan Kusno and other artists, in the Rijksmuseum, June 2022 I have made the animation: “revolusi”. The work was initially partly intuitively created with the help of materials and objects present in my studio. Gradually, an animation grew that through the composed soundscape and used “symbolic” objects and materials acquired a charged atmosphere and could evoke different associations, memories and feelings. However, the animation leaves room for different interpretations and wants to encourage new stories, reactions, the review and re-listening of the interwoven colonial history from different personal perspectives. It can be seen as a statement for a “revolusi” of decolonization: sharing different stories and perspectives out of freedom and respect with the ultimate goal of gaining more understanding for each other and for future generations through a more complete picture of the shared history. The old picture frame deprived from its colonial images or portrait(s) of colonial rulers (as used in the installation of Timoteus Anggawan Kusno), symbolizes the changing contexts of history. The Garuda as old religious symbol and to day the national symbol of Indonesia.
I always had a predilection for Indonesia: the rich culture with versatile interdisciplinary art expressions in music and sound, gamelan instruments, dance, wajang theater, Pencak Silat martial arts styles, meaningful textiles: ikats, batiks, sarongs, religions and diverse populations, the typical spices, the food, etc. I am interested in the interwoven (colonial) history and contemporary developments of the country and I am pleased with the new attention to the colonial past (the Netherlands as past colonizer), highlighted from multiple perspectives and personal stories so that this history can be revised, heard again, rewritten, supplemented and shared.
Here you can find more information about the exhibition Revolusi! in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
