Searching Land in the Land Word

Acrylic on transparent fabric, acrylic sheets, stones

The Broken White Project, Ace House

2022

Development has become a substitute for the frequent act of confiscation perpetuated by the state. Land seizures often result in forced displacements and the loss of living spaces. Tensions arise amidst continuous development, eroding the lives of people and nature. The escalating agrarian conflicts in recent years, labeled as “strategic,” raise questions: Strategic for whom when the people upstream and downstream become mere objects of confiscation? Chaos ensues from the accumulated negative impacts without any resolution to the layered issues within. 

Eka sawiji, bumi dununging titah. Dwi loro, sawah unggyan tetuwuhan. Tri telu, tirta pasabaning mina. These are three out of the nine Suluk Greget-Saut Sanga from Bon Suwung (in Javanese), a short story by Gunawan Maryanto, an Indonesian Writer Means; earth where living things live, fields where plants grow, and water is the home of fish, that speak of the elements that existed in our homeland before it became chaotic, suppressed, and oppressed.