From Purgation to Remembrance: Memorialising the May 1998 Violence in Post-Authoritarian Indonesian Visual Art

Abstract

Introduction In Yogyakarta, on 18 October 1998, Chinese Indonesian artist FX Harsono performed Korban (Burned Victims) as part of his solo exhibition at Cemeti Art House. In a disused construction site near the gallery, Harsono planted nine torso-shaped wooden sculptures attached to steel poles. Harsono explained to the audience that he wanted to show the processes behind his works and, specifically, how his works dealt with ‘the current happenings in Jakarta’. He then brought out five picket signs and proceeded to tell the audience about the challenges in finding out the truth about what happened during the riots of May 1998. As the artist began his speech, he pulled out the signs one by one, punctuating his narrative on every second sentence until four signs were placed opposite the torsos. Written on these signs were the words Rusuh (Riot), Kerusuhan (Rioting), Dibuat rusuh (The riot was made up), and Rekayasa agar rusuh (The riot was manipulated). The artist then burned the signs one by one with a torch gun before proceeding to burn the torsos. When most of the picket signs had turned into ashes, Harsono then pulled out the last sign, which stated, Siapa yang bertanggung jawab? (Who was responsible?) (fig. 1). He then walked, with his knees bent, along the line of the burning torsos and slowly lowered himself to the ground carrying the sign, while stating, ‘we lowered ourselves until we nearly crawled on the ground to ask this question, but we will never know who was responsible for this’. The burned sculptures were then displayed as part of his solo exhibition in the gallery space (fig. 2). This article starts with Harsono’s evocative work as it highlights a turning point in his artistic imperative to document and memorialise instances of antiChinese violence in Indonesia. In Harsono’s performance installation, the artist depicted the most recent incidence: the riots of 12–14 May 1998 in Medan, Jakarta, Solo, and a few other cities. At the end of the authoritarian New Order regime