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PT Besok Jaya revives forgotten dream of time travel, space and flying cars
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'Nostaljik Kritik: Operasi Taimket', comprising a set of installation that includes ‘time machines’, transforms Ruci Art Space into an imaginary tech company named PT. Besok Jaya (Prosperous Tomorrow) (Ruci Art Space/File)
B
andung-based artist Nurrachmat Widyasena, affectionately known as Mas Ito, is holding a solo exhibition titled Nostaljik Kritik: Operasi Taimket from Sept. 28 to Oct. 27 at Ruci Art Space in South Jakarta.
The exhibition, comprising a set of installations that includes “time machines”, transforms Ruci Art Space into an imaginary tech company named PT Besok Jaya (Prosperous Tomorrow).
“I have anxiety that began back then, when the promises of retro-futurism were widely offered, such as living on Mars in the year 2000 and flying cars in the year 2000,” Mas Ito, referring himself as the CEO of PT Besok Jaya, told The Jakarta Post.
He said that as he was born in 1990, he grew up believing that the promises of retro-futurism would be materialized shortly.
“[…] But what happened was, [the trend] shifted to information, so now I’m trying to make the move [toward technological advancements], if no one else does,” said Ito, adding that according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology journal that he read in 2013, many of the world’s biggest problems could actually be solved by companies in Silicon Valley.
However, he said he believed the tech giants would rather take the fast lane, conducting one-year research to manufacture the highest selling smartphone or create a state-of-the-art laptop, all in order to speed up capital turnover.
