Many cultures pride themselves on a story of a powerful being that guards the oceans. And it turns out the Caribbean, Indonesia, the Netherlands and West Africa share a myth of a female entity, said to have the upper body of a woman and the tail of a fish, defending their seas.

Dutch artists Junadry Leocaria and Richard Kofi, who have Caribbean and West African origins, have recently breathed life into this legendary creature and brought her to the Erasmus Huis, Jakarta, in an exhibition themed La Sirène.

“La Sirène is a Caribbean spirit, a magical mermaid,” Richard Kofi said in an interview with The Jakarta Post at the opening of the exhibition on Feb. 8. “There have been all kinds of sightings of her, all kinds of folktales around her being.”

Inspired by the mermaid, Kofi and his fiancée Leocaria presented a dance performance in Amsterdam in October 2022. A representative of the Erasmus Huis then invited them to do the same performance in Jakarta. 

“But we didn’t want to impose our thoughts or art on the Indonesian public,” Kofi said. “We wanted to collaborate with local artists to share our stories [and] our platform together.” 

In December 2022, these Dutch artists held an open call to multimedia artists, fashion designers and dancers in Indonesia to do a residency in Salihara Arts Center, South Jakarta, with them. 

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