[Elephant in the Room]

October 14 – November 14, 2019

Jakarta History Museum

Researched by Andi Achdian, Bondan Kanumoyoso

Curated by Sunyoung Oh

Organized by Jakarta History Museum

Supported by Project 7 1/2

[Elephant in a Room] will be followed by the Jakarta History Museum in 2019. Last year, through the first chapter of the exhibition, visual artists shed new light on the hidden and forgotten stories in the history of Jakarta through their artworks. This year, we have been working with two Indonesian historians Andi Achdian and Bondan Kanumoyoso, on the modern history of Jakarta. It will be the first contemporary history exhibition to be held in the Jakarta History Museum in Indonesia.

We are currently living in the experience of diversity with various changes. And we are repeating as much confusion and failure as it is multiple. We genuinely hope we can reflect on our past, understand the present, and create the future together.

This exhibition tries to show various points of view by Project 7 ½ together with the artists, historians, and the Jakarta History Museum it has collaborated, ever since the project began in 2014 with the question of ‘what is art?’. This proposal will not be the answer for everyone. However, we hope this exhibition can show various layered perspectives to the audience that they can read differently from what the audience has experienced thus far. So that art is no longer a way of indulging wealth for the upper-middle class, but rather a medium that can shine its light among us in everyday life. Perhaps the exhibition might not be able to suggest a concrete alternative for realizing a better experience through art. Nonetheless, we are confident that this exhibition will function as a medium where the art delivers stories that cannot be spoken out by individuals otherwise. Hopefully, the show will succeed to encourage this belief, and thus become a turning point for more people to seek after daily, practical, and tangible methods of making art for the public.
 

Andi Achdian is an Indonesian historian and sociologist. He got his Doctoral degree in History in 2015 from the Department of History, University of Indonesia. He is a managing editor of Jurnal Sejarah published by Masyarakat Sejarawan Indonesia (Indonesia Historical Society). He is active in various national and international conferences and published his research in several journals in Indonesia and abroad. His main interests are Urban History, Social History, and Museum studies.
 

Bondan Kanumoyoso is an Indonesian historian. He is working as a lecturer and researcher at the Department of History, Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia. He completed the Advanced Master Program (2002), and he got his Ph.D. (2011) from Leiden University. His research results have presented at various national and international conferences. His main research interests are colonial history, urban history, modern economic history, and maritime history.