Dutch East Indies Gothic Fashion Colonial
Linawati Sidarto (The Jakarta Post)
Amsterdam ● Thu, November 9, 2017
Underneath Iswanto Hartono'due south solemnly beautiful exhibition in Amsterdam lies a powerful message of the colonial times for both Indonesia and the Netherlands.
Inbound the k, hushed hall of the 14th-century Oude Kerk (erstwhile church), visitors might easily overlook the statue of Jan Pieterszoon Coen continuing in the left corner beyond a wrought-iron door.
The head of the life-sized statue glows in a soft, luminous cerise, and only upwardly shut information technology becomes clear that it is set alight: the statue is fabricated out of wax, and will burn throughout the eight-calendar week solo exhibition by artist Iswanto Hartono, ending on November. 15.
"I chose Coen because he is such an of import, yet controversial, historical figure in colonial history," says Iswanto.
The exposition is part of Europalia, a biannual arts and cultural exhibition based in Brussels. Each time, one land is highlighted throughout the nine-month event, and Indonesia is its focus this time. Until now, Iswanto is the simply artist exhibiting work for Europalia outside of Kingdom of belgium
The Oude Kerk, Amsterdam's oldest building, was specifically called by Europalia due to its strong ties with colonial history, Oude Kerk director and curator Jacqueline Grandjean explains.
The gothic building is now a museum and arts exhibition infinite, and however functions as a church building on Sundays. Like many sometime churches, it is also the burial site of prominent citizens, including Jacob van Heemskerck, the Dutch helm whose ships first reached the spice islands of Banda in 1599.
The Dutch grip on Banda, with its much-sought-after nutmeg, was a milestone in the formation of the Dutch Eastward Indies Visitor (VOC), a trading company which set the groundwork for Dutch colonial dominion in the Indonesian archipelago.
"The church building's chapel was congenital with VOC money, and many of the ships which sailed to the Due east Indies were blest correct here," Grandjean points out.
Grandjean set out to find an Indonesian artist for the exhibition, and Djakarta-based Iswanto was a logical pick.
"History is often part of his fine art. He has such a thoughtful, non-judgemental wait on it," says Grandjean, calculation that his background as an architect was an advantage. "It is not easy to set up art in an old, big church like the Oude Kerk. One needs to have a good agreement of space in lodge to make information technology work."
While Iswanto and Grandjean toyed with different approaches, such as a giant pall made of nutmeg hanging in the main hall, it resulted in four dissimilar displays that beg contemplation. In improver to Coen'southward statue, there are six wax miniatures of colonial buildings such as the lighthouse in Lampung, Fort Belgica in Banda and the Amsterdam Gate that used to stand up in the quondam boondocks Kota expanse of Dki jakarta. In reality, some of the buildings are even so standing, while others take disappeared.
"Candles take ever been used in spiritual worship, which fits in this infinite. It transmits light, and yet it will disappear," Iswanto said about using wax as a medium.
"The monuments depicted were congenital for pregnant reasons, and some were later as well torn downwards for other reasons. However, does information technology mean that they are forgotten once they are no longer physically there? Is that how we associate ourselves with history? In order to forget, we must remember first."
The statue of Coen, recognized as the founder of Batavia (at present Jakarta), was perched on what is now Jakarta's Lapangan Banteng for 7 decades before existence torn downward in 1943, during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia.
In his own land, Coen's statue in the middle of his hometown of Hoorn has sparked ongoing controversy betwixt those who encounter him equally a national hero and others who see him as "the butcher of Banda." Under his command, the Dutch killed thousands of the Banda people defendant of defying the Dutch monopoly on nutmeg trade.
Banda is featured in a separate room, where a drinking glass case contains iPads with a brusk picture show combining images and blitheness that tell the history of Banda.
As one enters the room, faint "local" sounds — prayers from a mosque, people speaking the local dialect — tin can exist heard in the groundwork. "I recorded that background track in Banda," Iswanto says.
The most "Dutch" brandish is Iswanto's silhouette estimation of a wagon still used by the Dutch regal family unit for of import occasions. On the side of the wagon, a gift from the urban center of Amsterdam to Queen Wilhelmina in 1898, is the paintingHomage from the Colonies, showing the Dutch queen on a throne, surrounded past bowing subjects from its colonies, including Indonesians.
"This carriage, I believe, belongs in a museum, and should no longer be used," Iswanto says. The continued use of the wagon has indeed been a discipline of Dutch public debate in recent years.
Iswanto, built-in in 1972 in Purwerejo, Central Java, intertwined his family history onto a display of a table filled with heads of hunted animals from all corners of the world where the Dutch were nowadays, including Republic of indonesia, Formosa and parts of Africa.
Hunting, Iswanto says, is originally for gathering food, only information technology can also be seen equally an act of conquering, with the heads as trophies. "Only hunting is besides very personal for me, as my grandfather and my father used to hunt," Iswanto explained. On the wall are former family photos of his grandfather'southward hunting excursions in the early 20th century.
The exhibition was featured inVolkskrant andNRC, the two main dailies of holland, which is exceptional for a solo Indonesian artist.Volkskrantwrote that the exhibition was "a poetic comment of Iswanto Hartono on the disappearing realization that holland and Indonesia accept a shared past."
Historian Wim Manuhutu praised Iswanto's work for sparking the question of "the value of monuments and the stories backside them. And that ane tin can, and should, look for the stories behind the standard explanations of those monuments."
"It was so interesting to get the perspective of an Indonesian artist on our shared colonial history. He'southward done it in such a mode that viewers tin can form their own opinion instead of teaching us a lesson," said Floortje Doornik, an Amsterdam resident who came to the exhibition. "The fact that information technology's situated here, in an former church total of history, too lends to contemplation."
Grandjean points out, however, at that place were likewise critical voices. "Some people were dismayed that such an exhibition was done in the Oude Kerk, which they saw every bit a symbol of Dutch glory."
In his opinion piece in theNRC daily, Iswanto wrote: "Street names are changed, monuments are taken down and buildings are destroyed. But the VOC's true legacy — a corrupt organization — was not destroyed past purging the monuments. As a affair of fact, the Soeharto era was synonymous [with] corruption."
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For farther details, please log on to oudekerk.nl/en/programma/iswanto-hartono/
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