Paturon Ing Lelayu; Tembung Ing Isining Ati

Paturon Ing Lelayu
2025 | Wooden box (230 x 90 x 90 cm), chair, landline telephone set, fan, notebook, blackboard

Tembung Ing Isining Ati
2025 | Wooden blackboard (30 x 40 x 2 cm), paint, chalk

Maharani Mancanagara’s interactive installation presents telephone booth in a dimly lit room, where everything that feels impossible can happen. In the booth, a chair and a landline from the past become silent witnesses to the “conversation” between generations: survivors of the 1965 tragedy and those of us who live in the present. Between departure and transit. Through this device, voices from the past flow into stories of arrests, interrogations, forced labor, fears, hopes, wounds and stigmas that never end. Maharani refers to and re-voices the diary of her grandfather, R. Soegriwo Joedodiwirdjo (1910–1987) whom she has never met in her entire life. This teacher was detained without trial in Koblen prison (1966–1971), Nusakambangan (1971–1975) and ended up on Buru Island (1975–1978) on charges of his involvement in Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). The development of the communist party in Indonesia during the Cold War era was part of a complex geopolitical problem. Relying on the biographical narrative from her grandfather’s diary, Maharani borrowed the narrative method in oral history to reveal the dark sides of history.

She was inspired by the presence of Suspas telephone kiosks, a telecommunications booth that is now provided in several prisons and detention centers. The limited service of a few minutes is intended for prisoners to communicate with their families. For visitors, to be in this telephone booth is to experience the subject’s awareness as a “prisoner” in the thick clouds of history. In the exhibition space, a series of blackboard objects with quotes from her grandfather’s handwriting are presented. These references and actions become significant personal markers for Maharani, through which historical texts can be reinterpreted. This work encourages visitors to re-imagine the motifs of intersection between private life, freedom and taboo/prohibition.

Photo ©︎ Danang Sutasoma