A stage lined with a collection of megaphones above a large glass chamber sets the tone for performances featuring ear shattering noises and mind bending effects.

After the initial barrage of seemingly random and incoherent sounds there finally came a point in between the eardrum ripping chaos where one could distinguish certain sonic elements: from the drone of looped recited texts, syncopated rhythm of footsteps, drumbeats and slashing noises, distorted sound samples, the muted voices to yet loud screams.

The noises were part of Sehabis Suara #1 (After the Voices #1) dance-theater offering by performance art collective Teater Garasi.

Teater Garasi cofounder Yudi Ahmad Tajudin said that Voices was a new project that the collective had been composing since July last year.

'€œWe want to see how a subject or individual reacts in the midst of these loud and boisterous voices. The performance'€™s concept is abstract, but it was inspired by real events in Indonesia'€™s recent history,'€ Yudi, who is cofounder of the 20-year-old collective, told The Jakarta Post.

The on-going work is intended to be a reflection on the eruption of voices and narratives during the post-1998 period, and what kind of internal and external tension this situation generates.

A 30-minute performance '€” a shorter version '€” of After the Voices was staged by the art collective on Wednesday, to coincide with Teater Garasi being presented with the 2013 Prince Claus Award.

The annual award was given by the Netherlands-based Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development to honor outstanding achievements in the field of culture and development. Teater Garasi is among a group of 11 individuals and organizations whose cultural actions are considered to have had a positive impact on the development of their respective societies.

'€œIt is not customary for Prince Claus Award laureates to perform during the presentation event, but Ton van Zeeland said that we should do it to make it special and it just so happened that we were working on Voices [project] at the time,'€ Yudi said referring to the director of Dutch cultural center Erasmus Huis.

The full version of Voices is scheduled to be performed in Yogyakarta in June as well as a number of cities around the country.

Teater Garasi will use Voices as an ongoing social experiment over the next two years and is set to have several elements added over time.

Yudi said that Voices would mark the new phase of the art collective'€™s creative journey after its two decades of existence.

'€œWe are not only looking at investigating what it is happening in around us but also our members'€™ experiences within Teater Garasi.

'€œWe now refer to ourselves as Garasi Performance Institute, while keeping the Teater Garasi brand, to demonstrate that we are evolving through sharing knowledge, experiences and ideas,'€ Yudi said.

Award winning: Garasi Performance Institute cofounder Yudi Ahmad Tajudin (left) accepts the 2013 Prince Claus Award from Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia Tjeerd de Zwaan.
Teater Garasi was started in December 1993 by three students of the school of social and political science at Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, namely, Yudi, Kusworo Bayu Aji and Puthut Yulianto.

Back then, the collective simply a reaction to the political and social situation of the oppressive New Order regime. As a result of strengthening student movement of the 1990'€™s it blossomed into a diverse community of diverse who expressed themselves in many ways.Amid the changes of the Indonesian political landscape after the fall New Order Regime, the collective realized that many new questions had to be formulated.

'€œLike the many Indonesians questioning themselves during the transitional period, Teater Garasi, too, had to go though its own process of reform,'€ Yudi said. They then decided to trace these questions by taking inspirations from the vast world of theater: adapting and appropriating the many sources of European modern theater knowledge, inter-Asian performing art disciplines, as well as the richness of Nusantara theater realm.

In 2002, Teater Garasi began its third phase in its evolution by constructing self-discipline in exploring and processing the diversity of theater tradition, turning itself into a laboratory of theater '€” an interdisciplinary space where creators experiment and sharpen theater creation methods.

Teater Garasi then entered another phase in 2008, in which the collective, while continuing self-criticism, realized that the best theater laboratory was an open and none restrictive forum. The open laboratory then allowed Teater Garasi'€™s artists to embark on different journeys, while connecting freely with other artists and cultural figures as well as the diversity of social realities.

'€œWe opened ourselves to the process of sharing knowledge, documenting our experience, ideas and knowledge. We now have actor studio, artist residency program, publication.

'€œWe now want to strengthen our effort in this process; it will be our focus of effort for the next five to 10 years,'€ Yudi said.

'€” Photos by Wendra Ajistyatama