From 3rd June to 8th October 2023, the ‘di sini, d.l.l.’ exhibition will be showcased at Museum Macan. Translated to ‘here, etc’, this exhibition presents works that explore Indonesia’s complex histories and narratives of location.
Drawn from the collection of the museum, the title refers back to a line in Indonesia’s Independence Declaration, read by Sukarno (who was to become Indonesia’s first President), on the morning of 17th of August 1945. The words are preceded by a reference to a transfer of power. However, as the proclamation text was drafted opportunistically in haste, during a vacuum of power towards the end of World War II, details relating to the transfer of power had not been formalised by the key architects of the independence movement.
In this exhibition, the phrase ‘d.l.l’ (etc.) has been a starting point to engage in some of the complex conversations which arise today when we think about the manifestation of power within the public sphere and its relationship to Indonesia’s landscape and locality.
The exhibition features key paintings in the Museum’s collection that portray landscape, including two works by Raden Saleh (b. Dutch East Indies, ca. 1811–1880), where his Indies Landscape (1853) and Javanese Mail Station (1879) are paintings connected to the colonial experience. This is in contrast to View across the Sawahs to Gunung Agung (1939) by Walter Spies (b. Russia, 1895–1942) which embodies a European imagination of the mystical, sensual, cinematic idea of Bali.
Works by S. Sudjojono, Hendra Gunawan, Affandi, Itji Tarmizi, Sudjana Kerton, and other Indonesian artists who were present at the moment of Indonesia’s independence from colonial rule, mark out some of the ways in which artists were invested in representing common people within the frame of painting, and were working to define a national identity reflective of local social and cultural experiences.
This exhibition includes work from: Adrien-Jean Le, Affandi, Ahmad Sadali, Alexander Sebastianus, Arahmaiani, Ashley Bickerton, Ay Tjoe Christine, Djoko Pekik, Dullah, F.X. Harsono, Hendra Gunawan, Handiwirman Saputra, Hendra Gunawan, I GAK Murniasih, I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Irfan Hendrian, Itji Tarmizi, Jeihan Sukmantoro, Lee Man Fong, Maryanto, Miguel Covarrubias, Nadiah Bamadhaj, Raden Saleh, Rudi Mantofani, Rudolf Bonnet, Rusli, Sudjana Kerton, S. Sudjojono, Sunaryo, Theo Meier, Trubus Soedarsono, Walter Spies, and Widayat.