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Art exhibition encourages visitors to reclaim history, call it their own
After a two-year hiatus, the National Gallery is holding an art exhibition titled "Para Sekutu yang Tidak Bisa Berkata Tidak" (The Acquiescent Allies), held by Goethe-Institute in collaboration with art institutions in Thailand, Singapore and Germany.
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Ever-evolving: Participating artist Marintan Sirait graces the exhibition with her artwork 'Membangun Rumah' (Building A House), the same artwork that she has been working on since 1995 with updated motions and forms. (Goethe-Institut/Courtesy of Goethe-Institut) (Goethe-Institut/Courtesy of Goethe-Institut)
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em>After a two-year hiatus, the National Gallery is holding an art exhibition titled "Para Sekutu yang Tidak Bisa Berkata Tidak" (The Acquiescent Allies), held by Goethe-Institute in collaboration with art institutions in Thailand, Singapore and Germany.
The nature of artwork demands interpretation, yet it raises further doubts over whether art and contextualism go well together. If artwork is dismantled from the creator's intent upon its completion, will one be able to form a whole new narrative while looking at it and draw relevance to today's circumstances? "Para Sekutu yang Tidak Bisa Berkata Tidak" (The Acquiescent Allies), which runs from Jan. 28 to Feb. 27, tries to answer that question.
As part of a long-term curatorial dialogue project initiated by Goethe-Institut titled Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories, the exhibition presents distinct yet intertwining narratives with three other collaborators: MAIAAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai, Singapore Art Museum and Hamburger Bahnhof (part of Nationalgalerie - Staatliche Museen Zu Berlin) in Germany.
As the fourth and final part of the series, Indonesian curator and researcher Grace Samboh aimed to revisit approximately 2,000 artworks in the National Gallery's existing collection and present the chosen in a new light.
The curatorial process behind the exhibition, according to Grace Samboh, was not entirely based on new ways of thinking. "Newness was not the purpose [of the curation], but rather simply a means for storytelling. Each of us should have had our way to recite our story," said Grace, in a press conference, on Jan. 27.
For "Para Sekutu yang Tidak Bisa Berkata Tidak", the 22-year-old establishment is stuffed with 78 artworks taking form in books, paintings, sculptures, photographs and mixed-media installations in five different themed sections, namely Convivialities, Allegiances, Festivities, Kinship and Forces.
