Selamat Datang Jakarta
Sunda Kelapa
2017
At the Jakarta Biennale 2017, Aliansyah observes the fast-changing drama in the residential community of Kampung Akuarium in Penjaringan, Sunda Kelapa, North Jakarta. Kampung Akuarium is an area on the outskirts of Jakarta that has grown outof proportion in regard to its residents, floods, and fires.
The social landscape which Aliansyah has observed since 2016 is a consequence of policing and residential relocation by the Greater Jakarta administration. A number of residents who have moved to a new area have always tried to return to their previous home despite it having been levelled to the ground. As if one within a reciprocal relation with their old "landscape," many residents of Kampung Akuarium have built new homes from the debris.
By identifying himself symbolically with the debris of social life, Aliansyah tries to bring his sensibility closer to the real traces of struggle of the kampong's people. He has dubbed his practice con(tra)ceptual art. Inspired by the term conceptual art, forAliansyah, his performance practice is against overly conceptual art.
He has splits his performance between two separate places. In the first place, he grinds up the remnants of debris in Kampung Akuarium as a sign of the artist's presence. The debris is then crushed to fill a punching bag, which is taken to his performance space at the Jakarta Biennale. This is his second performance space. The sandbag serves as a means for the public to be physically involved as well as asymbolic presence of the violence and wrath of the social landscape.
As a former amateur boxer in Bandung, Aliansyah is trained to use the body's physical movements and potential to face an opponent. The body's ability to take a punch becomes a symbolic narrative to evoke our memory of social spaces imbued with indiscernible struggle. The same can be said of the presence of debris; invisible traces of invisibility inside the cover of the punching bag. [Hendro Wiyanto]
Performance Art
Jiwa, Jakarta Biennale
Artistic Director
Melati Suryodarmo
Curator
Hendro Wiyanto, Annissa Gultom, Philippe Pirotte, and Vít Havránek
Performance Artifacts
2 video performances:
Performance Duration
9 Hours a day, 7 days performance
Click here to see the video
The social landscape which Aliansyah has observed since 2016 is a consequence of policing and residential relocation by the Greater Jakarta administration. A number of residents who have moved to a new area have always tried to return to their previous home despite it having been levelled to the ground. As if one within a reciprocal relation with their old "landscape," many residents of Kampung Akuarium have built new homes from the debris.
By identifying himself symbolically with the debris of social life, Aliansyah tries to bring his sensibility closer to the real traces of struggle of the kampong's people. He has dubbed his practice con(tra)ceptual art. Inspired by the term conceptual art, forAliansyah, his performance practice is against overly conceptual art.
He has splits his performance between two separate places. In the first place, he grinds up the remnants of debris in Kampung Akuarium as a sign of the artist's presence. The debris is then crushed to fill a punching bag, which is taken to his performance space at the Jakarta Biennale. This is his second performance space. The sandbag serves as a means for the public to be physically involved as well as asymbolic presence of the violence and wrath of the social landscape.
As a former amateur boxer in Bandung, Aliansyah is trained to use the body's physical movements and potential to face an opponent. The body's ability to take a punch becomes a symbolic narrative to evoke our memory of social spaces imbued with indiscernible struggle. The same can be said of the presence of debris; invisible traces of invisibility inside the cover of the punching bag. [Hendro Wiyanto]
Performance Art
Jiwa, Jakarta Biennale
Artistic Director
Melati Suryodarmo
Curator
Hendro Wiyanto, Annissa Gultom, Philippe Pirotte, and Vít Havránek
Performance Artifacts
2 video performances:
- Punching Stones
- Kicking Stones
- Punching Bag (Debris of demolished houses at Kampung Aquarium, Sunda Kelapa, North Jakarta)
- Gloves
Performance Duration
9 Hours a day, 7 days performance
Click here to see the video