PARIPURNA: DIVISI 62 Exhibition Reflects What It’s Like to Be Indonesian
JAKARTA (5/11) – Indonesia is currently facing one of its biggest obstacle when racial, religious, and ethnic based identities are used as political weapon. The regression is a setback towards the country’s slogan that puts unity first and foremost, among diversity. An exhibition titled “PARIPURNA: Divisi 62” held at RUCI Art Space aims to bring the pride and a sense of belonging as a nation with a series of art installation in the forms of painting, 3D installation, photography, and many more. It features the works from an art collective based in Jakarta called DIVISI 62 that are comprised of individuals with backgrounds in music studies, anthropology, film, graphic design and photography. Curated by Gesyada Siregar, they try to display works that pose the question “Can we really define what is Indonesian?”. The artists first did a self-reflection as a human being who live in Indonesia about their own heritage. They iterates Western influence in the context of Indonesian culture and whether they have truly acknowledged Indonesian culture, traditions and heritage.
DIVISI 26 who have the access for Western influences and educations try to re-appropriate themselves into their Indonesian heritage that is ironically distant. Through this exhibition, it enables them to learn what social studies call as ‘Orientalism’. It is about learning the Eastern values in the viewpoints of Westerners. What they once called barbaric, primitive, or uncivilized is now being used as a learning point for DIVISI 62. By studying the principles and methods of the Western studies, the artists are able to discover the East and as a result, retrace the ‘Indonesian-ness’ within them. Inside the exhibition, you could find Barong, kecapi, rebab, old archives and traditional dances in various forms like archive, videos, photographs, illustration or sound art.
We enjoy the whole exhibition and as the collective’s first, it encourages us to feel like an Indonesian at last. Spectating the works as an outsider, we are positioned as onlookers and it gives the chance for us to realize that these products of culture are overlapping. There is no definite point that state Indonesia as one single entity with one single culture, instead we consider the diversity is what makes us what we are today. The exhibition will run until 10 June 2018 and opens everyday from 11 AM to 7 PM. For more information regarding “PARIPURNA: DIVISI 62”, head to @ruci.art.