Dealing in Distance

Mengguh Les: Exploring the Diversity of Flavors in Bali
Don Rare Nadiana x Wulan Dewi Saraswati, cooking performance and food sharing

Mengguh is a traditional culinary dish from Tejakula District, Buleleng Regency, with local variations across villages. In Desa Les, it holds particular cultural significance, functioning not only as daily food but also as an essential element of social and ritual life. The dish is commonly served during religious ceremonies, communal celebrations, and family gatherings. Prepared from rice porridge cooked in a turmeric-infused, spiced broth, Mengguh is accompanied by vegetables, peanut sauce, and occasionally fish with pindang broth.

A defining feature of Mengguh is its ideal level of doneness, known locally as mata katak—perfectly cooked, neither underdone nor overly soft. Also referred to as Bubuh China, the dish reflects the long history of cross-cultural encounters in the region, particularly interactions between local communities and Chinese migrants since at least the ninth century, when Desa Adat Les functioned as a small coastal port.

The history of Desa Les is marked by migration, displacement, and resettlement, experiences that continue to shape its collective identity. Within this context, Bubuh Mengguh may be understood as an archive of taste—connecting present generations to ancestral histories while embodying processes of cultural adaptation and social integration.

Through the Bubuh Mengguh cooking demonstration, audiences are invited not only to witness a culinary practice, but also to engage with the layered histories of diaspora, cultural exchange, and communal resilience that define Desa Les.

Chief Cook: Ni Made Asrini
Ass. Cook: Luh Priyati
Helper: Ketut Madiawan
Storyteller dan Helper: Nyoman Nadiana

Mai Mai Melali: Following the Traces of “Willst du mit uns gehen?”
I Putu Oka Surya Pratama, Dance, 20 minutes

This performance was created as a response to Seah Zelin’s “Willst du mit uns gehen?”, which highlights the experiences of Southeast Asian migrants in Europe—particularly those who work in invisible conditions while sustaining everyday life. Whereas Zelin uses blankets and residual palm oil industry materials to explore the body, labor, and overlooked lives, this performance brings similar questions into the context of Bali and diaspora.

Rather than presenting Bali as a complete or exotic cultural identity, the performance approaches the Balinese body as a body in motion—experiencing displacement, existing between languages, customs, and histories. Mai Mai Melali opens a narrative of the Balinese body today: vulnerable, uncertain, and continuously negotiating the changes brought by the extractive commodification of tourism.

Choreographer: I Putu Oka Surya Pratama
Performers: Puji Syahropi, I Wayan Eka Parta Muliana, Made Githa Sanjiwani, I Putu Pande Surya Pramana

BEFORE THE PULSE FAILS
for percussion, scratch and electronic
Wayan Gde Yudane x Putu Septa, Percussion-Performance, Elektronik, 15 min.

The essence of life: just as a pulse confirms a person is alive, the “pulse” of a situation can be its central activity, energy, or purpose. For the pulse to fail is for that essence to be lost.

Composer: Wayan Gde Yudane
Performer: Wayan Gde Yudane & Putu Septa
Production team: Kubu Music