Fulbright visiting scholar Elisabeth Ida Mulyani discusses her research and artwork dismantling dominant narratives about Indonesia 1965.

By Elisabeth Ida Mulyani

As an Indonesian born during the victorious era of the New Order regime, I grew up with the official, orchestrated version of the nation’s history about the "1965 Tragedy". Suharto’s "New Order" retained 32 years of dictatorial control of the country and wrote the narrative about the preceding coup attempt in 1965 and subsequent mass violence through images to justify the killings and glorified the perpetrators. Yet, real historical images or visual evidence are scant. Much of it was destroyed; that which survives has not been properly documented.

With a background in visual arts, my recent projects have evolved to be research focused on narratives and images from "1965" considered missing from circulation and what their resurrection would mean for Indonesia’s history. In "Sejarah Siapakah? (Whose History?)," I have created "(De/Re) Construction" which explores alternative narratives along three threads. In "Construction," the dominant monolithic version of history is scrutinized. In "Deconstruction," the old discourse is broken down from the perspectives of survivors and (in)direct victims of the 1965 atrocities. Finally, "Reconstruction" rebuilds an understanding of 1965 wherein substitute and complementary images are required. This last phase is the focus of my current artistic research. A part of this work has been exhibited during the Venice Biennial in 2019, organized by The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, and will be shown in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in 2021.

The Fulbright grant allowed me to spend some time at UCLA, affiliated with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and Department of History. It enabled me to engage in the research on the photographic materials collected by Professor Geoffrey Robinson (UCLA) and Professor Douglas Kammen (NUS) on their current book project about the visual history of the mass violence in Indonesia in 1965-1966. This opportunity allowed me to study thousands of images that both prominent scholars have gathered, to understand what kind of images were made and kept, what images were made but not circulated, and what images are entirely missing. I had the chance to examine the conditions of production of the images, seeking to understand the makers of the images, their relationship (personal, professional, political) to the subjects of the images they created, under what constraints (artistic, political, physical, moral) they operated, and what degree of control they had over the distribution of their work.

This research also aims to analyze how visual imagery may have shaped personal and social memories of the events of 1965-1966 and how viewing new or different images might affect ideas of what happened. My background study in photography and my art projects in this subject matter have served to contribute in exploring the idea that the official construction and domination of the visual record of the events over more than five decades have effectively rendered the violence against the (alleged) communists invisible, at home and abroad, and in that way has been crucial in producing and reinforcing a perverse social memory of the events.

When I arrived at UCLA in January, both faculty members made their first selection of roughly 200 images. Furthermore, there are thousands of images made by one of the very few female war photojournalists in the 1960s, who sadly passed away recently due to COVID-19. We are selecting images according to their historical context and artistic value. My foremost task now is to design the display of these images in a book format, which I find utterly exciting and challenging for its interdisciplinary character and the sensitivity of its subject.

In February, I gave a public colloquium at UCLA for the Indonesian Studies Program introducing my work and research. I discussed how my work as an artist responds to the mono-narrative of dictatorship by proposing a space that embraces alternative narratives.

Also during my Fulbright stay, I was invited to perform "Mengenangmu Yang Dihilangkan" (In Loving Memory of the Disappeared) by Michigan State University Peace and Justice Studies at their campus in Lansing. This art performance took form in a "Last Supper" setting to commemorate the kidnapped activists during the late 1990s, who are still missing until today. A weekly silent action, "Aksi Kamisan," is held every Thursday in front of the Presidential Palace in Jakarta to demand the government to resolve this case and other human rights violations. This performance is a part of the research on the role of artworks in the human rights advocacy, conducted by Professor E. Drexler.

In a normal circumstance, I wish to explore the possibility of carrying out this performance and research at UCLA as well. Due to the current global pandemic, I had to return to Brussels before the end of my program and without having the chance to fulfill my to-do list. However, I managed to visit the UCLA Botanical Garden and take some photographs. Please see the images here, which are offered for free for non-commercial use.