Kartika Solapung, Sidhi Vhisatya, and Wilda Yanti Salam will spend three months in a MARANTAU residency - hosted by Riksa Afiaty and managed by Theodora Agni in Yogyakarta.
MARANTAU is a new residency platform from the Goethe Institut Indonesia and Riksa Afiaty who adopts the dynamics of movement, exile, separation from familiar places and the adaption with new working patterns and cultures in new locations. Questions what it means, in the words of Edouard Glissant, to errant and de-root.
MARANTAU is also part of an effort to bend practices beyond the dominance of Java. The island of Java is often the site of those who are in the process of ‘merantau’. Nonetheless, some aspects of the structure of Javanese society is elitist, authoritarian, feudal and conservative. As such, as these established nodes of oppression need to be explored and critiqued.
With “Special Region” emblematized to Yogyakarta as the host city, this could be a cue to dismantle the ‘interlocking oppressions’ (Combahee River Collective, 1977) in the cascade of race, gender, disability, class, sexuality, language and vocabulary. Each condition affects the other. Land grabbing and persecution to vulnerable people, cannot be separated from the government’s inability to accept criticism and its neglect of citizen’s rights.
Throughout the three-month residency, the participants are encouraged to hold events in accordance with their interests and practices – such as workshops, reading groups, joint cooking sessions or open studios in order to create connections and exchanges with others. At the end of the residency, the participants will be asked to hold a public presentation – such as an exhibition, film screening, performance and to discuss the process and outcomes of their residency.
Kartika Solapung
has been actively involved in the artistic and cultural activities of the Komunitas Maumere KAHE community since 2016. She is currently focused on acting at Studio Teater KAHE. While overseeing various programs, she is also responsible for the management of the KAHE community. At the end of 2019 she enjoyed a brief residence at the Teater Garasi / Garasi Performance Institute, where she participated in the AntarRagam program. Throughout 2020-2021 she has taken part in artistic collaborations with residents of the village of Kampung Wuring and researched the life of women in the village in connection with traditional gastronomy and cooking. The results of her research and collaborative work are contained in a digital recipe book entitled
Susurang Esse (2021). Some of her texts have been published on the website Laune.id.
Sidhi Vhisatya
is a freelance creative worker living in Bali. His fields of activity include management services, curation, writing, archiving and producing documentary films. Sidhi uses an approach that draws on collective memory and personal experience on the topic of queer, domestic space, and religion. In 2020 he served as curator for the zine Kepala Putik and the Queer Indonesia Archive (QIA), two initiatives that focused on the life experiences and narratives of queer people in Indonesia.
Wilda Yanti Salam
is a writer and researcher living in Makassar. Her interest lies in artistic ways of working that involve people from the general population. In 2018 she researched Lontang, which are traditional bars in Makassar that offer the drink ballo (tuak). Her work has been published in anthologies such as
Ramuan Di Segitiga Wallacea (2020),
Kota diperam dalam Lontang (2018) and
Gerakan Literasi Sekolah SLB di Tiga Kota Sulawesi (2019). A number of her texts have also been published in organization bulletins and on media websites. This year she is working as an assistant curator for the Makassar Biennale 2021. She is currently working in Tanahindie.
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