Max Lane – Art has power to inspire activism and challenge political taboos. In Indonesia, a recent exhibition highlighted this dynamic.
Especially during the last ten years, it has often been through works of art and literature that the erosion of the taboo against discussing publicly the politics of the mass killings of 1965 has been accelerated. Even under the authoritarian New Order, literature, such as the novels and prison notebooks of Indonesia's greatest author, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, had played such a role.
We have seen theatre pieces such as Faiza Mardzoeki's adaptation of Pramoedya's Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind) via her epic theatre piece Nyai Ontosoroh (2007) and her later work on the tribulations of those women who survived political imprisonment, Silent Song of the Genjer Flowers (2014), based on one of the main characters in This Earth of Mankind. Nyai Ontosoroh was declared the iconic theatre piece of the year by Kompas newspaper while Silent Song of the Genjer Flowers played to full houses and received wide media coverage. (Editor's note: Nyai Ontosoroh is the female protagonist in the first book of Toer's Buru Quartet, This Earth of Mankind. Max Lane translated all four volumes into English from Bahasa Indonesia.)
Earlier this year, the documentary "Exiles" ("Eksil") was screened in commercial cinemas for weeks to packed cinemas of young people. This documentary profiled members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and other supporters of the Sukarno government from before 1965 who were studying outside Indonesia and then forced into exile after the events of 1965. Discussions of the documentary went viral on social media, and it has also provoked discussions amongst intellectuals and commentators.
More recently, in July and August 2024, the official National Gallery of Indonesia (Galnas) held an exhibition of sculptures by Indonesia's foremost sculptor, Dolorosa Sinaga (72) and her former student, Budi Santoso, under the theme "Statues and Activism". Among these works were major sculptures that spoke to the issue of mass killings in 1965 and other political violence. The exhibition comprised over 200 works by the two sculptors. Galnas is a government-funded gallery and the Director-General for Culture in the Ministry of Education and Culture, Hilmar Farid, officially opened the exhibition. The opening was attended by hundreds and thousands have seen the exhibition, which was widely reported in the media.
The sculptures relate to many aspects of Indonesian history from the colonial period until today and take up a range of themes. Both Sinaga and Santoso are renowned for their aesthetic power in relation to the human figure. The very large sculpture placed outside the main exhibition building's central entrance spoke to 1965. The Jakarta Post described the work like this: "In front of the main building, just below its white marble steps, a thin man slumps over a coffin atop a thick book titled Indonesian History of Mass Murder 1965-66 – his wide-open mouth seemingly uttering a silent scream."
That such a sculpture was placed in front of Building A, in the most prominent position in Indonesia's National Gallery, is a significant example of the gradual erosion of the 1965 taboo.
Importantly, the exhibition was not limited to commenting on the killings of 1965-1966. Standing beside the sculpture mentioned above was another large work: "Monument of Kidnappings in Indonesia". This work portrays an elderly couple holding up a huge empty picture frame. The work refers to the kidnappings and disappearance of activists in 1997 and 1998, the last two years of Suharto's rule. Human rights organisations still allege that incoming president Prabowo Subianto was responsible for those events. The empty picture frame refers to the portraits of the disappeared children that parents have brought with them to the weekly demonstrations in front of the presidential palace and that have continued for almost 20 years now.
The expansion of the process of eroding the 1965 taboo to a narrative that includes 1998 is also important to note.
There was also an interesting intersection with the latest political developments. As the current context pushes the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) towards an oppositional role, it began with activities around the attack by New Order government forces on the then-PDI headquarters in Jakarta in 1996, when several people were killed and over a hundred injured. At that time, party chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri was in a direct confrontation with then-President Suharto over who should lead the PDI. In July this year, the PDI-P held a commemorative seminar and protest action on this issue for the first time in two decades.
Megawati, with an entourage from the PDI-P, made a well-publicised visit to the Sinaga exhibition at the National Gallery, where she laid flowers at the work relating to the 1965-66 massacres. She also asked Sinaga to create a work to be placed in front of current PDI-P headquarters to commemorate those killed and injured in the 1996 attack on PDI headquarters.
As one taboo erodes, other taboos or silences will also erode.
[Max Lane is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. He has been an academic at the University of Sydney, Victoria University (Melbourne), Murdoch University and the National University of Singapore and has lectured at universities in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States.]