A Glimpse of “Manusia Kuat” Exhibition by Tulus

A Glimpse of “Manusia Kuat: Potret Manusia Indonesia” Exhibition by Tulus and Adhitya Himawan at Dia.Lo.Gue Artspace

Singer Tulus has just revealed his latest single from “Monokrom” called “Manusia Kuat” a while ago. It turns out that the song goes beyond a tune, but it also inspires him to spotlight several strong humans or “Manusia Kuat” in his own version. Collaborating with photographer, Adhitya Himawan, Tulus held “Manusia Kuat: Potret Manusia Indonesia” photo exhibition at Dia.Lo.Gue Artspace from 23 May to 11 June 2017. The notion behind this exhibition was due to the lack of government’s involvement in the life of the citizens, making Indonesian people more trained to face the current and future challenges. The challenge is also faced by marginalized people, tribal communities, those who reside outside of Java, and the victims of natural disaster who are helped by the subjects whose figures are photographed and displayed on the exhibition. Approximately 13 figures are shown on “Manusia Kuat” exhibition including Maris Tri Sulistyani, the founder of Papermoon Puppet Theater, Muhamad Alfatih Timur the founder of crowd-funding site kitabisa.com, Najwa Shihab the TV journalist, Pratiwi Sudarmono the first astronaut from Indonesia, Agus Prayogo a long distance runner of Indonesia and Butet Manurung the founder of Sokola Rimba.

Adhitya Himawan who has worked with Tulus on his previous albums, use special set of lighting for these photographs to emphasize on the subjects’ facial lines and expression. Over a black background, we could see some of the subjects slightly smile, give a firm gesture but most of them could not hide their exhaustion for all the work they have done for their communities. Not only photographs, the singer himself immersed on a deep exploration on each subject. He did an interview with each of them, and wrote a long narration depicting the result of the interview on each photograph. As on the release of “Manusia Kuat”, he collaborated with Papermoon Puppet Theater in the form of music video. He wants to prove that art goes beyond border, many discipline of art could collaborate and result in various platforms of display, whether it’s a music video, a music collaboration or even photography exhibition.

Curator Chabib Duta Hapsoro said, “The lyrics of song “Manusia Kuat” not only depict the strength of human soul in facing a challenge. More than that, the lyrics portray people who are used to experience oppression. They often have this feeling of helplessness and giving up, but on the other hand still building hope to rise up from the slump and be in peace with their own failures. “Manusia Kuat” could also build optimism to face the future that is full of uncertainty.” It is hard not to get inspired after seeing all these amazing subjects have contributed to our nation and they are the true treasure of Indonesia. Tulus and Adhitya Himawan in a sense have reached their goals to inspire many people through the exhibition.

Reporter & Pic: Intan Maharani/Editor: Novita Widia