Fitri DK

Fitri DK is a writer and artist from Yogyakarta. She uses graphic design techniques (such as hardboard cuts and etchings) to criticise social and environmental issues. Moreover, Fitri DK is committed to raising women’s issues through art and music and consistently represents a strong female voice in an extremely patriarchal culture. She is a member of SURVIVE! Garage community, the art collective Taring Padi, the all-women artist group Bunga-Bunga Besi, and a vocalist in the band Dendang Kampungan.

At Framer Framed her work has been on show as part of Pressing Matters (2018) a group exhibition featuring 24 artists from Indonesia, brought together by artist Kevin van Braak. Split up into three interconnected parts, the exhibition addresses pressing socio-political issues in Indonesia. Fitri’s work was part of the Pentagonal Icositetrahedron. Her contribution to this collective work was inspired by a political action of the Kendeng women, who protested against a cement factory that was polluting the environment. Their act of resistance involved a protest where they sat on the ground and stuck their feet in blocks of concrete. In every action, they were humming a mantra ‘ibu bumi; ibu bumi wis maringi, ibu bumi dilarani, ibu bumi kang ngadili’ (‘mother earth gives, mother earth hurts, mother earth will judge’). Fitri DK made this work to show solidarity with the Kendeng women, who to this day struggle to save their land, and fight for the environment. They fight not only for themselves, but also for the next generation, so that they are able to enjoy fresh air, clear water, mountains, lands, and forests.

Fitri participated in the Taring Padi exhibition Tanah Merdeka (2023) at Framer Framed in Amsterdam. Drawing from the Indonesian expression ‘tanah merdeka’ (liberated land/space), the exhibition sees land as a broad concept with many complexities. It considers forces of extraction, preservation, colonisation, occupation, identity, and emancipation, and thinks of land not only as a physical and territorial site to be protected, defended, and reclaimed, but also as a spiritual, cosmological, and vibrant space that enables different forms of interrelation, conversation, and genuine exchange beyond boundaries. Tanah Merdeka continues the collective approach as developed by Taring Padi over the years, with the realisation and presentation of new collaborative works. During a one-month residency in Brazil, four members of Taring Padi developed a new work Retomar Nossa Terra / Rebut Tanah Kita (2023) in collaboration with Jewish Brazilian cultural centre Casa do Povo and the Brazilian landless movement, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), presented as part of Tanah Merdeka in Amsterdam.