It goes without saying that our universally recognized concept of ‘time’ has more or less been upended these past couple of years. As the COVID-19 pandemic and its variants continue to permeate our daily lives, how do we navigate our memories from here on out?

Jakarta’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (MACAN) aims to answer this question in their latest exhibition: "Present Continuous / Sekarang Seterusnya", launched on Jan. 15.

The exhibition itself as part of Museum MACAN’s "Present Continuous/Sekarang Seterusnya" project that was launched in September 2021 as a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim was to generate a platform for artistic communities across Indonesia.

“[The exhibition is part of] a much bigger project: a platform where we will be able to collaborate with exhibition partners and curators across the country,” Museum MACAN’s director Aaron Seeto told The Jakarta Post.

“Normally, we would open an exhibition, and then we would have public programs that run alongside. With this project, we [were rethinking] how we generated the conversation and how we could make the conversations part of the project and not secondary to the exhibition,” Aaron added.

"Present Continuous/Sekarang Seterusnya" saw Museum MACAN collaborate with five contemporary art organizations across Indonesia: Biennale Jogja, Indeks, Jatiwangi art Factory, LOKA and Makassar Biennale. The exhibition is also supported by Australia’s Project Eleven, Julian and Cahaya Juwadi, Festivo and LG Electronics.

Aaron conceded that the COVID-19 pandemic had made it challenging for curators to travel to different parts of Indonesia. Museum MACAN saw this as an opportunity to reach out to other curators in other cities and collaborate with them.

“We have five young curators who know what’s going on in their cities,” said Aaron.

These cocurators include Anwar Jimpe Rachman, Arie Syarifuddin, Elia Nurvista, Putra Hidayatullah and Rizki Lazuardi. Together, they selected four artists and two art collectives from various regions in Indonesia to have their works displayed at the exhibition.

These artists include Arifa Safura and DJ Rencong from Banda Aceh, Aceh, Mira Rizki from Bandung, West Java, Muhlis Lugis from Makassar, South Sulawesi, Udeido Collective from Jayapura, Papua and Unit Pelaksana Terrakota Daerah from Majalengka, West Java. The "Present Continuous/Sekarang Seterusnya" exhibition allows these artists to explore how they navigate collective memories and histories of sound as well as their relationship to the neighborhood, mythology and even plants, in their respective places of origin.

For instance, Dicky Takndare from Udeido Collective notes that his collective works by “bringing the local wisdom from Papua in the past, including philosophy, beliefs, local knowledge, folklore or songs, and elaborating them with the current contemporary narratives”, while Mira Rizki opted to explore the concept of ‘gated communities’ within the Regol district in Bandung. 

 “I observed a changing sonic environment within urban middle-class areas that impacted our understanding and experience of space,” stated Mira, adding, “Using utility poles as the element that we always see on a daily basis and embedded with speakers emanating different sounds or noises from the community, I want the audience to have different experiences and perspectives towards the work.”

The exhibition was initially launched in September 2021 but did not open to the public until Jan. 15. It was established as a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia as well as a platform where information and research from artistic communities across the country could be shared. 

Museum MACAN and the five cocreators embarked on programs of talks, discussions and online programs, in an effort to engage audiences across the network in important conversations about the current state of contemporary art practice in Indonesia, in addition to artist-led creative industries that result in real policy change and ground-up economic development.

“If you look at our program, there are a lot of discussions and education. Art education is one of the really key things that we do. We always try to look at ways and open up those access points,” said Aaron.

To the artists and their communities who have shared their diverse perspectives and practices on the platform, the exhibition has not only opened critical strands of dialogue but has also fostered a sense of connection among all of these artists at a critical time in their collective existence.  

“The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to imagine new ways to connect artists and audiences as well as to think differently about research and collaboration,” said Aaron.

“Over the last two years, as we checked in with our colleagues around the country and around the world, and shared stories and ideas about ways to work and move forward, we came to the realization that organizational collaboration, where we can bring together curators who are working on the ground in their own cities and neighborhoods could be one way to work through these structural limitations,” he added.

The "Present Continuous / Sekarang Seterusnya" exhibition will be held until May 15, 2022, at Museum MACAN in Kebon Jeruk, Jakarta, following strict COVID-19 protocols. 

Pandemic

In March 2020, Museum MACAN was temporarily closed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like museums all over the world, Museum MACAN, which was established in November 2017, navigated its way around the pandemic mostly through digital platforms.

Speaking on the subject, Aaron said that the pandemic saw Museum MACAN establishing stronger engagement with audiences from outside Jakarta.

“Before the pandemic, our audience was primarily based in Jakarta. Now, we have a very strong engagement across all provinces in Indonesia because we deliver our things online,” said Aaron.

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