Framer Framed

In the context of The International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS13): Crossways of Knowledge and in collaboration with KITLV and the Integrated Arts – Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung (UNPAR), Framer Framed is proud to present Sensible Past: Of Distances and the Fabrication of the Frame in Gedung Balai Pemuda in Surabaya, Indonesia.

Background

Sensible Past: Of Distances and the Fabrication of the Frame stems from continuous research on the earlier project Declaring Distance: Bandung-Leiden, co-organised with Atelier KITLV-Framer Framed artist-in -residence Theo Frids Hutabarat (2022-2023), as well as conversations with recent Atelier KITLV-Framer Framed residency participants Clara Jo (2023-2024) and Mirelle van Tulder (2024-2025). The residency, facilitated by Framer Framed, was designed for artists to develop a project based on their engagement with materials from the Dutch (post-)colonial era currently held by KITLV (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Leiden).

About

Sensible Past is a group exhibition that explores how artistic practices challenge embedded values of the colonial archive and provide alternative frameworks for sensing the past. The exhibition takes place in the historical West Wing of Gedung Balai Pemuda. While the main building offered an exclusive space for Dutch and European citizens for recreation and play, the West Wing was developed to serve colonial parties until 1945. In that year it was temporarily occupied by members of the Youth of the Republic of Indonesia (PRI) to fight against the Dutch army. After independence, Gedung Balai Pemuda was used as a military and regional quarters, as public meeting halls and more recently as a cultural activity centre.

Inhabiting such a space with a century-long history of drastic changes in its identity, Sensible Past started from the curiosity of how a space is framed by different mediums and technologies of power, and through time – fabricated into versions of histories. The presentation utilises a frame as a modular texture to house a variety of works. These works critically engage with the sense of distance and exoticism of colonial imagination and our imagination of the (colonial) past. They redirect our attention towards the impacts caused by forces of colonial framing – with the possibility of reflection and repair. Alongside the presentation is a short film screening programme, an interactive ice tasting session, and a piano and lecture performance to create vernacular, non-formal sites of learning.

Sensible Past: Of Distances and the Fabrication of the Frame invites us to rethink archival and artistic practices as well as counter-institutional circulations of knowledge. It is aimed at recognising embodied and communal learning processes and exploring ways to articulate notions of memory. Sensible Past considers how archives are alive and living, with their potential to transcend colonial hosting spaces and create infrastructures of solidarity through collective actions of reframing.

The exhibition takes place from 28 July until 1 August, 2024 in Gedung Balai Pemuda in Surabaya, Indonesia. For more information, visit the ICAS13 website.