We the People Fight, Fear, Love, Believe – We Protest
“Revolusi! Indonesia Independent” an exhibition as a proposal for contemporary discussions
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, until 5 June 2022
*This essay was written for the course “Design in Words” in Spring 2022 during my Master’s “Comparative Arts and Media Studies”
The notion of men wanting to rule over others, is as old as human history and yet it apparently must repeat itself again and again. Shouldn’t mankind have learned anything from the last centuries? May the reason be that we’re all diligent hamsters caught in the wheel of capitalism or is it because money rules the world and always has? Sometimes art feels insignificant compared to capitalist imperial power, which is actually able to defy international law and a tyrannical mad man invading a sovereign capitalist country. Still, what can exhibitions teach us on living self-determined?
But let’s start from the beginning. On 17 August 1945 nationalist leader Sukarno declared the independence of Indonesia: “We the people of Indonesia do hereby proclaim the independence of Indonesia.” Four years of struggles for self-determination follow. The current exhibition “Revolusi! Indonesia Independent” at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam tells personal stories of Indonesians fighting for Independence. Thus, the Dutch museum displays over 200 artefacts, from paintings loaned out for the first time by Indonesian art collections to privately-owned collectibles.
View into the room. Photograph by author, March 01, 2022.
Dressing gown or dress made of silk maps by J. Terwen-de Loos. Photograph by author, February 24, 2022.
The visitors are invited to dive into fragments of the lives of journalists, fighters, soldiers, artists, diplomats, children, and politicians who were then battling for independence. Looking at “Revolusi! Indonesia Independent” from a Marxist perspective, one could examine the power of social capital, once set free. The philosopher advocates for putting the people back in, which is starkly applied to the current exhibition. The stories and artefacts illustrate the unleashing of creativity. The people of Indonesia took back the pride and ownership of production; they broke free from the false consciousness implied by the capitalist colonialists, which structured society and determined cultural and social relations. The displayed objects clearly have the marks of the hand and transmit a clear sense of materiality as they were made from necessity and whatever fabric the Indonesians could find. For instance, a dress sewn from old maps shows the creativity of the independence fighters even in the face of scarcity of textiles, which characterized the four years of revolution. It is rather intriguing to think about the estranging of the objects later and in this exhibition: while the objects’ origins and purposes were clear, now they have been mythicized as symbols. This seemingly contradicts their original significance, or does it indeed add the extra layer that we need today?
However, the lack of an historical overview and the specific time frame from 1942 to 1945 restrict the visitors’ experience. While, throughout the exhibition different topics, such as “war and Diplomacy”, “Violence”, or “Artists and Revolution”, are briefly explained, this lack of overall contextualization and explanation leaves the average audience, you and me and all those who are not experts in the Dutch colonial history, alone.
As the visitors are directed from room to room, they encounter all different kinds of media, from moving images and photographs to paintings as well as different kinds of design artefacts. Overall Rijksmuseum displays more than 200 objects that provide an insight into this important moment of world history.
Luka dan bisa kubawa berlari by Timoteus Anggawan Kusno. Photograph by author, February 24, 2022.
Most striking is the installation just at the beginning of the exhibition that promises an emotional, immersive, and contemporary experience. A promise that was broken when the rooms start to get overcrowded with all the small, personal stories. Albeit one is touched by their emotional impact and urgency up to this day, very few actually stick. For the mixed media installation, Artist Timoteus Anggawan Kusno used the state portraits of the governors-general of the Dutch East Indies. These “tormenting phantoms of the past” were stowed away together with the flags in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. To portray the spirit of the revolution Kusno derives the title “Wounds
and venom I carry as I am running” of Indonesian poet Chairil Anwar’s poem “Semangat” (spirit). Ultimately, he raises questions about the long unfinished business of the colonial matrix of power: “Where do we stand now? What do this history mean to you? To me?”
Anyway, compared to the exhibition “Kirchner en Nolde: Expressionsime. Kolonialisme” at the Stedelijk Museum, that was on display from 4 September to 5 December 2021, “Revolusi! Indonesia Independent” at Rijksmuseum also lacks a bit in self-reflection, again maybe, due to the missing historical placement. Yet, self-reflection is really what the emphasis should be on. And again, addressing you and me and every power-hungry leader. Is now, more than ever, the time for museums?
