ARKIPEL
Jakarta International Documentary & Experimental Film Festival
Forum Festival melibatsertakan seniman, kritikus, cendekiawan, dan praktisi dalam diskusi panel dan meja bundar yang mengkaji peran sinema kontemporer dalam masyarakat. Segmen ini mengedepankan dialog, refleksi kritis, dan pertukaran lintas disiplin untuk menantang dan memikirkan kembali batasan praktik dokumenter dan eksperimental.
Setiap tahun, Festival Forum secara konseptual selaras dengan tema utama ARKIPEL, berfungsi sebagai ruang diskursif yang memperluas kerangka kuratorial festival ke dalam percakapan publik. Diskusi, presentasi, dan pertukaran yang dikembangkan dalam segmen ini secara langsung menanggapi keprihatinan tematik yang dieksplorasi oleh festival.
Pada tahun 2026, Festival Forum mengadopsi “The Damned of the Earth” sebagai payung tematiknya, membentuk serangkaian dialog yang meneliti implikasi budaya, politik, dan estetika dari tema tersebut dalam praktik gambar bergerak kontemporer.
Forum Festival brings together artists, critics, scholars, and practitioners in panel discussions and roundtables that interrogate contemporary cinema’s role in society. This segment foregrounds dialogue, critical reflection, and exchange across disciplines to challenge and rethink the boundaries of documentary and experimental practices.
Each year, Forum Festival is conceptually aligned with the overarching theme of ARKIPEL, functioning as a discursive space that expands the festival’s curatorial framework into public conversation. The discussions, presentations, and exchanges developed within this segment respond directly to the thematic concerns explored by the festival.
In 2026, Forum Festival adopted “The Damned of the Earth” as its thematic umbrella, shaping a series of dialogues that examined the cultural, political, and aesthetic implications of the theme within contemporary moving-image practices.
Pidato Utama / Keynote Speech
Presented by
MANSHUR ZIKRI
Manshur Zikri adalah seorang seniman, kritikus, dan kurator yang berbasis di Yogyakarta dan Lombok Utara. Melalui praktik transdisipliner yang mencakup riset artistik, strategi kuratorial, pekerjaan editorial, dan produksi budaya eksperimental, ia mendekati budaya sebagai metodologi kritis dan sebagai tempat penyelidikan kolektif. Ia memegang gelar Sarjana Kriminologi dari Universitas Indonesia dan telah aktif di Forum Lenteng sejak 2009. Zikri adalah pemimpin redaksi Jurnal Footage dan Akumassa, dan sebelumnya menjabat sebagai kurator di Cemeti – Institute for Art and Society (2020–2022) dan sebagai anggota juri edisi ke-9 ARKIPEL – Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival. Ia juga memimpin dan berkontribusi pada inisiatif kolaboratif termasuk Situationist Under-Record, PROYEK EDISI, Council of Ten, dan 69 Performance Club. Pada tahun 2025, ia menjadi kurator Bangsal Menggawe 2025: Ando Kayuq Aiq, yang mencerminkan minatnya yang berkelanjutan pada praktik spesifik lokasi, memori kolektif, dan persinggungan antara penelitian artistik dengan pengetahuan lokal.
Manshur Zikri is an artist, critic, and curator based in Yogyakarta and North Lombok. Working through a transdisciplinary practice spanning artistic research, curatorial strategy, editorial work, and experimental cultural production, he approaches culture as both a critical methodology and a site of collective inquiry. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Criminology from the University of Indonesia and has been active with Forum Lenteng since 2009. Zikri is editor-in-chief of Jurnal Footage and Akumassa, and previously served as curator at Cemeti – Institute for Art and Society (2020–2022) and as a jury member of the 9th edition of ARKIPEL – Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival. He also leads and contributes to collaborative initiatives including Situationist Under-Record, PROYEK EDISI, Council of Ten, and 69 Performance Club. In 2025, he curated Bangsal Menggawe 2025: Ando Kayuq Aiq, reflecting his sustained interest in site-specific practice, collective memory, and the intersection of artistic research with local knowledge.
PANEL 01
Presented by
- Dr. phil. GEGER RIYANTO
- PERDANA “PEPE” ROSWALDY
- BENY KRISTIA
ARTIKULASI PERLAWANAN
Bagi Frantz Fanon, kolonialisme tidak hanya bekerja melalui kekerasan yang tampak, tetapi juga melalui tatanan yang mengatur ruang, sejarah, dan kehidupan sehari-hari. Dunia kolonial membelah masyarakat ke dalam kategori-kategori yang menentukan siapa yang memiliki kuasa atas tanah, pengetahuan, dan masa depan, serta siapa yang terus hidup dalam kondisi yang serba dibatasi. Dalam situasi seperti ini, resistensi tidak selalu hadir sebagai peristiwa yang besar atau heroik. Ia tumbuh dari cara masyarakat mempertahankan ruang hidupnya, merawat ingatan kolektif, menyusun kembali sejarahnya sendiri, dan membangun pengetahuan dari pengalaman yang mereka alami.
Panel ini mengajak kita melihat bagaimana bentuk-bentuk resistensi tersebut muncul dalam konteks yang berbeda. Melalui perspektif antropologi, sosiologi, dan sinema, para pembicara akan membahas bagaimana warga menghadapi perubahan yang dipicu oleh kolonialisme, kapitalisme, maupun pembangunan yang terus mengubah lanskap sosial. Mitos, sejarah lokal, konflik agraria, hingga pengalaman personal bukan dipahami sebagai kisah-kisah yang berdiri sendiri, melainkan sebagai bagian dari cara masyarakat membaca, merespons, dan menegosiasikan struktur kekuasaan yang bekerja dalam kehidupan mereka.
Berangkat dari pengalaman riset dan praktik masing-masing, Geger Riyanto, Perdana Putri Roswaldy, dan Lukas Beny Kristia akan membahas bagaimana pengalaman warga membentuk bahasa-bahasa resistensinya sendiri. Pertanyaan yang ingin dibuka bukan lagi apakah resistensi itu ada, melainkan bagaimana ia bekerja, siapa yang mengartikulasikannya, dan dalam bentuk apa ia dapat dikenali hari ini.
ARTICULATING RESISTANCE
For Frantz Fanon, colonialism operates not only through visible violence, but also through the structures that organize space, history, and everyday life. The colonial world divides society into categories that determine who has access to land, knowledge, and the future, and who remains confined within conditions of limitation. In such a context, resistance does not always emerge as a grand or heroic event. Rather, it grows through the ways communities defend their living spaces, preserve collective memory, reclaim their own histories, and generate knowledge from their lived experiences.
This panel invites us to examine how these forms of resistance take shape across different contexts. Bringing together perspectives from anthropology, sociology, and cinema, the speakers will explore how communities respond to transformations driven by colonialism, capitalism, and development projects that continue to reshape social landscapes. Myths, local histories, land conflicts, and personal experiences are understood not as isolated narratives, but as ways of reading, responding to, and negotiating the structures of power that shape everyday life.
Drawing from their respective research and practices, Geger Riyanto, Perdana Putri Roswaldy, and Lukas Beny Kristia will discuss how the lived experiences of communities give rise to their own languages of resistance. Rather than asking whether resistance exists, this panel seeks to explore how it operates, who articulates it, and the forms through which it can be recognized today.
Biografi Panelis / Panelists’ Biography
Dr. phil. Geger Riyanto adalah antropolog sosial dengan fokus pada kajian sosial-budaya Indonesia, khususnya mengenai indigenitas, hubungan antarkelompok, dan resource frontiers di kawasan timur Indonesia. Ia menempuh pendidikan doktoral di Universität Heidelberg, Jerman, dengan disertasi yang mendapat penghargaan dari Frobenius Institute. Penelitiannya menelaah bagaimana identitas, relasi kuasa, dan sejarah lokal beroperasi dalam konteks frontier sumber daya serta konflik sosial. Selain publikasi akademik, Geger juga aktif menulis opini di media populer untuk menjembatani antropologi dengan wacana publik kontemporer. Ia berkomitmen memperkuat antropologi publik di Indonesia melalui kombinasi riset mendalam, refleksi kritis, dan keterlibatan sosial.
Perdana “Pepe” Roswaldy adalah seorang sosiolog lingkungan dan staf akademik di Monash University Indonesia. Fokus penelitiannya adalah ekspansi monokultur di Asia Tenggara (Indonesia dan Malaysia) dan aspirasi politik ekonomi masyarakat dari ekonomi perkebunan. Bersama teman-teman peneliti, buruh kebun perempuan, dan aktivis lingkungan, ia mendirikan Sawit Womxn Educational Group, sebuah ruang belajar yang berdedikasi untuk keadilan lingkungan bagi buruh di sepanjang rantai pasok sawit.
Beny Kristia lahir di Magelang dan pindah ke Malang untuk melanjutkan pendidikan tinggi. Di sana, ia dan teman-temannya di Berakinema memproduksi beberapa film yang diputar di festival nasional dan internasional. Film-filmnya telah diputar di festival seperti Minikino Film Week, Show Me Shorts, BUT Film Festival, dan CRASH International Fantastic Film Festival. Ia memiliki minat yang besar pada shitposting, film bergenre fantasi, budaya populer, dan humor morbid, yang semuanya ia upayakan untuk disalurkan melalui karyanya. Pada tahun 2025, ia pindah ke Jakarta untuk lebih mengembangkan minatnya pada film dan seni di Milisifilem Collective. Film terakhirnya sebelum pindah ke Jakarta adalah “When the Blues Goes Marching In,” yang diputar di festival seperti Minikino Film Week, Diffusion, Beijing International Short Film Festival, QCinema International Film Festival, Festival Film Dokumenter, dan Singapore International Film Festival. Di Milisifilem Collective, ia memperluas praktik artistiknya seperti gambar, kolase, dan sketsa.
Dr. phil. Geger Riyanto is a social anthropologist whose research focuses on the socio-cultural dynamics of Indonesia, particularly indigeneity, intergroup relations, and resource frontiers in Eastern Indonesia. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, where his dissertation received an award from the Frobenius Institute. His research examines how identity, power relations, and local histories operate within the context of resource frontiers and social conflict.
Beyond his academic publications, Geger is an active public writer, contributing opinion pieces to popular media that bridge anthropological perspectives with contemporary public discourse. He is committed to advancing public anthropology in Indonesia through rigorous research, critical reflection, and sustained social engagement.
Perdana “Pepe” Roswaldy is an environmental sociologist and an Assistant Professor of Sustainability at Monash University Indonesia. Their* research focuses on the monoculture expansion in Southeast Asia (Indonesia & Malaysia) and the political-economic aspirations of plantation inhabitants. Along with women environmental activists, researchers, and plantation workers, Pepe co-founded Sawit Womxn Educational Group, a learning space committed to socio-ecological justice for workers in the palm oil supply chain.
Beny Kristia was born in Magelang and later moved to Malang to pursue higher education. There, together with fellow members of Berakinema, he produced several short films that were screened at national and international film festivals. His works have been featured at festivals including Minikino Film Week, Show Me Shorts, BUT Film Festival, and the CRASH International Fantastic Film Festival.
Beny’s practice is shaped by his interest in shitposting, fantasy cinema, popular culture, and morbid humor, all of which find their way into his filmmaking. In 2025, he relocated to Jakarta to further develop his artistic practice in film and contemporary art as part of the Milisifilem Collective. His last film before moving to Jakarta, When the Blues Goes Marching In, was screened at festivals including Minikino Film Week, Diffusion, the Beijing International Short Film Festival, QCinema International Film Festival, Festival Film Dokumenter, and the Singapore International Film Festival. At Milisifilem Collective, Beny has expanded his artistic practice beyond filmmaking to include drawing, collage, and sketching.
PANEL 02
Presented by
- ALFA GUMILANG
- PRIHANDINI NUR RAHMAH
- VINCENT RUMAHLOINE
- LAURENT VAN LANCKER
Sesudah Kemarahan Reda: Merawat Kesadaran yang Terancam Padam
Dalam bab Spontaneity: Its Strength and Weakness, Fanon membongkar keyakinan bahwa perubahan sosial akan lahir secara otomatis dari ledakan kemarahan rakyat. Berangkat dari perjuangan anti kolonial di Aljazair, ia menunjukkan bahwa spontanitas memang sanggup membuka pintu revolusi, tapi tak pernah cukup untuk mempertahankannya — ia gampang dipatahkan atau, lebih berbahaya lagi, dibelokkan untuk melayani kekuatan yang justru dilawannya. Fanon juga menggugat anggapan Marxis klasik bahwa kelas pekerja industri selalu menjadi subjek utama revolusi. Dalam masyarakat kolonial, justru kelompok di pinggiran — petani, masyarakat desa, penganggur, lumpenproletariat — yang paling radikal, karena mereka hidup di luar jaminan (sekaligus di luar disiplin) sistem kolonial. Tapi posisi itu berparadoks: tanpa pembentukan kesadaran politik, kekuatan yang sama bisa dengan mudah direkrut oleh kolonialisme sendiri untuk meredam gerakan yang mengancamnya.
Hampir enam puluh tahun setelah Fanon menulis itu, pertanyaannya tetap hidup, meski wajah kolonialisme sudah berganti kulit. Kekuasaan hari ini bekerja bukan cuma lewat negara, tapi lewat platform digital, industri budaya, ekonomi kreatif, algoritma media sosial, hingga mekanisme pendanaan yang diam-diam membentuk cara kerja organisasi masyarakat sipil. Di berbagai penjuru dunia, otoritarianisme, perang, krisis iklim, genosida, dan ketimpangan ekonomi tumbuh berbarengan dengan banjir informasi, disinformasi, dan komodifikasi perhatian. Di Indonesia sendiri, ruang demokrasi menyempit lewat kriminalisasi warga, eksploitasi sumber daya atas nama pembangunan, dan praktik kebudayaan yang kian bergantung pada logika proyek dan pasar.
Jika ruang-ruang yang berpotensi melahirkan kesadaran politik terus terkooptasi, bagaimana kerja perlawanan masih mungkin dilakukan? Panel ini menelaah bagaimana kesadaran politik diproduksi, dirawat, dan disebarluaskan lewat metode berbasis artistik, jurnalisme investigatif, penerbitan independen, riset dan residensi seni, hingga antropologi audiovisual, sebagai kerja-kerja yang menahan diri dari logika klik, komodifikasi, dan institusionalisasi. Siapa yang memproduksi pengetahuan, melalui metode apa, dan untuk kepentingan siapa?
After the Anger Fades: Tending a Consciousness at Risk of Dying Out
In the chapter Spontaneity: Its Strength and Weakness, Fanon dismantles the belief that social change is born automatically from the eruption of popular anger. Drawing on the anti-colonial struggle in Algeria, he shows that spontaneity can indeed open the door to revolution, but is never enough to sustain it — it is easily broken, or worse, redirected to serve the very power it once opposed. Fanon also challenges the classical Marxist assumption that the industrial working class is always the primary subject of revolution. In colonial society, it is precisely those at the margins — peasants, rural communities, the unemployed, the lumpenproletariat — who prove most radical, because they live outside the guarantees (and outside the discipline) of the colonial system. But this position carries a paradox: without the formation of political consciousness, that same force can easily be recruited by colonialism itself to defuse the very movement that threatens it.
Nearly sixty years after Fanon wrote this, the question remains alive, even as the face of colonialism has changed its skin. Power today operates not only through the state, but through digital platforms, the culture industry, the creative economy, social media algorithms, and funding mechanisms that quietly shape how civil society organizations function. Across the world, rising authoritarianism, war, climate crisis, genocide, and economic inequality advance hand in hand with a flood of information, disinformation, and the commodification of attention. In Indonesia, democratic space is narrowing through the criminalization of citizens, the exploitation of natural resources in the name of development, and cultural practices growing ever more dependent on the logic of projects and markets.
If the spaces capable of producing political consciousness are increasingly co-opted, how can resistance still be carried out? This panel examines how political consciousness is produced, tended, and disseminated through artistic methods, investigative journalism, independent publishing, artistic research and residencies, and audiovisual anthropology — work that resists the logic of clicks, commodification, and institutionalization. Who produces knowledge, through what methods, and for whose benefit?
Biografi Panelis / Panelists’ Biography
Alfa Gumilang saat ini bekerja sebagai Manajer Pengembangan Audiens di Project Multatuli. Sebelumnya sempat bekerja di bidang perfilman sebagai publisis. Sebelumnya lagi, banyak bergerak di isu perburuhan. Sempat membuat media perburuhan, mendirikan serikat, hingga advokasi-advokasi perburuhan di lapangan.
Prihandini Nur Rahmah (Andini) bekerja sebagai editor buku di Marjin Kiri. Berbasis di Jakarta, ia telah berkecimpung di industri penerbitan sejak 2021. Dengan semangat yang kuat terhadap sastra dan keadilan sosial, ia menggunakan suaranya dan kemampuannya untuk mendukung kisah-kisah yang memberdayakan serta menyuarakan perspektif-perspektif yang terpinggirkan, baik di dalam maupun di luar dunia sastra.
Vincent Rumahloine adalah seniman interdisipliner, peneliti, fasilitator, dan kurator berbasis di Indonesia, lulusan Seni Rupa Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). Praktik artistiknya berfokus pada isu perpindahan, hak asasi manusia, lingkungan, ingatan kolektif, dan pembacaan ulang sejarah melalui pendekatan yang melibatkan komunitas. Ia menginisiasi berbagai proyek seperti Don’t Call Me Hero, Moving Museum, dan Sedekah Benih. Karya-karyanya telah dipresentasikan di berbagai biennale, Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, dan ZKM Karlsruhe. Saat ini, ia menjabat sebagai Direktur Eksekutif Rakarsa, sebuah yayasan di Bandung yang mengembangkan proyek interdisipliner, program residensi, dan pendidikan seni.
Laurent Van Lancker adalah seorang pembuat film, antropolog, dan pengajar asal Belgia. Ia mempelajari Film dan Antropologi, serta meraih gelar PhD di bidang Seni Audio-Visual. Ia menjabat sebagai Profesor Antropologi Audio-Visual di Aix-Marseille University, tempat ia mendirikan kelompok riset ANFAA yang berfokus pada “Bentuk Naratif Etnografi Alternatif”. Ia juga merupakan salah satu pendiri laboratorium proyek SIC – SoundImageCulture dan BAAB – Beyond Audiovisual Anthropological Borders. Laurent telah membuat enam belas film — mencakup genre eksperimental, dokumenter, dan fiksi — serta telah menerima sembilan penghargaan. Karya-karya dokumenter awalnya mengeksplorasi tema sosial dan religius, diikuti oleh serangkaian film pendek berjudul “Experimental Ethnographies”. Belakangan ini, ia menyutradarai tiga film panjang bertema migrasi. Karya-karyanya memadukan berbagai pendekatan, seperti sinema kolaboratif, hibrida, dan sensori, menghadirkan dialog antara etika dan estetika, serta antara puisi dan politik.
Alfa Gumilang currently works as the Audience Development Manager at Project Multatuli. Previously, he worked in the film industry as a publicist. Before that, he was deeply involved in labor issues, ranging from creating labor-focused media and establishing unions to conducting on-the-ground labor advocacy.
Prihandini Nur Rahmah (Andini) works as a book editor at Marjin Kiri. Based in Jakarta, she has been involved in the publishing industry since 2021. With a strong passion for literature and social justice, she uses her voice and skills to support empowering stories and amplify marginalized perspectives, both within and beyond the world of literature.
Vincent Rumahloine is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, facilitator, and curator based in Indonesia, a graduate of Fine Arts at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). His artistic practice focuses on issues of displacement, human rights, the environment, collective memory, and the re-reading of history through community-involving approaches. He has initiated various projects such as Don’t Call Me Hero, Moving Museum, and Sedekah Benih. His works have been presented at various biennales, the National Gallery of Indonesia, the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, and ZKM Karlsruhe. He currently serves as Executive Director of Rakarsa, a Bandung-based foundation developing interdisciplinary projects, residency programs, and arts education.
Laurent Van Lancker is a Belgian filmmaker, anthropologist and lecturer. He studied both Film and Anthropology and holds a PhD in Audio-Visual Arts. He is Professor of Audio-Visual Anthropology at Aix-Marseille University, where he founded the research group ANFAA on “Alternative Narrative Ethnographic Forms.” He is also a co-founder of the SIC – SoundImageCulture and BAAB – Beyond Audiovisual Anthropological Borders – project laboratories. Laurent has made sixteen films — spanning experimental, documentary, and fiction — and has received nine awards. His early documentary works explored social and religious themes, followed by a series of shorts titled “Experimental Ethnographies.” More recently, he has directed three feature-length films on the theme of migration. His works blend various approaches, such as collaborative, hybrid, and sensory cinema, offering a dialogue between ethics and aesthetics, as well as between poetics and politics.
PANEL 03
Presented by
- AFRIAN PURNAMA
- AZALIA SYAHPUTRI
- MN FIQRI
Jebakan Pemajuan Kebudayaan
Dalam Bab III, The Pitfalls of National Consciousness, Frantz Fanon menunjukkan bahwa kemerdekaan politik tidak otomatis menghasilkan proyek kebangsaan yang mandiri. Persoalannya terletak pada kegagalan membangun basis produksi dan institusi yang memungkinkan masyarakat mengorganisasi kehidupannya sendiri. Dari sini, kritik Fanon dapat dibaca melalui tata kelola kebudayaan: siapa yang memiliki sarana produksi, siapa yang menguasai institusi, siapa yang menentukan legitimasi, dan bagaimana sumber daya kebudayaan didistribusikan. Dengan kata lain, persoalannya bukan hanya isi kebudayaan, tetapi struktur yang menentukan siapa yang dapat memproduksi dan menentukan arah kebudayaan.
Jika kebudayaan dipahami sebagai salah satu bidang kehidupan publik, maka persoalan yang sama dapat diarahkan pada tata kelola kebudayaan (cultural governance): bagaimana kebijakan, institusi, dan mekanisme pengambilan keputusan mengatur produksi, distribusi, legitimasi, serta akses terhadap kehidupan kebudayaan. Dalam kerangka ini, pelaku seni dan lembaga kebudayaan bukan sekedar tempat berkesenian, tetapi menjadi bagian dari cara sebuah bangsa mengelolah dan menentukan arah kebudayaannya. Pertanyaannya bukan lagi semata-mata karya apa yang dihasilkan, tetapi bagaimana mekanisme tata kelola produksi karya membangun Gerbulek (Gerakan budaya dan ekonomi) sebagai basis kebudayaan yang berpijak pada kekuatan masyarakat sendiri atau justru mereproduksi relasi kuasa yang diwariskan dari masa kolonial.
Salah satu pintu masuk untuk melihat persoalan tersebut adalah film-film amatir masa Hindia Belanda. Dalam pengertian umum, “amatir” sering diasosiasikan dengan praktik dari bawah atau grassroots. Namun dalam konteks kolonial, film seluloid amatir justru banyak lahir dari kehidupan kelas kolonial yang memiliki akses terhadap teknologi, modal, mobilitas, dan waktu luang. Film-film tersebut merekam perjalanan, liburan, dan kehidupan mewah sebagai konsumsi visual orang-orang kolonial, sementara produksinya dapat melibatkan tenaga pribumi. Posisi ini memperlihatkan paradoks antara status “amatir” dan struktur sosial yang menopangnya. Secara historiografis, film tersebut penting untuk melihat bahwa kemampuan merekam, memiliki arsip, dan menentukan representasi kehidupan tidak pernah netral, melainkan terkait dengan distribusi teknologi, modal, tenaga kerja, dan kuasa.
Persoalan mengenai distribusi kapasitas tersebut beririsan dengan politik pendanaan kebudayaan hari ini. Relasi kuasa bekerja melalui perangkat yang tampak teknis seperti proposal, indikator, anggaran, pelaporan, evaluasi, tetapi didalamnya berlangsung negosiasi antara gagasan ideologis dan tuntutan struktural pendanaan. Gagasan komunitas harus diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa program, praktik sosial menjadi target dan indikator, keberhasilan harus dibuktikan melalui dokumentasi. Akibatnya, kerja yang disebut grassroots dapat melahirkan kelas perantara yang memiliki modal administratif, jaringan, dan kemampuan mengakses sumber daya. Pertanyaannya kemudian bukan sekadar siapa yang menerima dana, tetapi apakah mekanisme tersebut memperbesar kapasitas masyarakat atau justru membentuk kelompok yang semakin kuat karena kemampuannya mengelola distribusi sumber daya atas nama masyarakat.
Pada titik irisan ketiga persoalan tersebut, panel ini membaca kembali kritik Fanon terhadap kelas menengah nasional dan proyek kebangsaan: bagaimana perubahan struktur formal tidak selalu mengubah mekanisme distribusi kuasa. Dari film amatir kolonial hingga politik pendanaan kontemporer, yang dipertanyakan adalah siapa yang memiliki kapasitas untuk memproduksi, merepresentasikan, mengarsipkan, mengelola, dan menentukan kebudayaan. Komîna Fîlm a Rojava menjadi salah satu kasus pembanding untuk melihat kemungkinan pengorganisasian produksi kebudayaan melalui kerja kolektif dan jejaring solidaritas horizontal. Dengan demikian, panel ini tidak hanya mempertanyakan bagaimana kebudayaan dimajukan, tetapi bagaimana tata kelolanya bekerja dan apakah ia memperluas kapasitas masyarakat untuk menjadi subjek kebudayaan atau justru mereproduksi kelas, ketergantungan, dan relasi kuasa dalam bentuk yang baru di tengah konfigurasi global yang terus berubah.
The Pitfalls of Cultural Advancement
In Chapter III, “The Pitfalls of National Consciousness,” Frantz Fanon demonstrates that political independence does not automatically lead to an autonomous national project. The problem lies in the failure to establish a productive base and institutions that would enable society to organize its own life. From this perspective, Fanon’s critique can be understood through the lens of cultural governance: who owns the means of production, who controls the institutions, who determines legitimacy, and how cultural resources are distributed. In other words, the issue is not merely the content of culture, but the structures that determine who can produce culture and set its direction.
If culture is understood as one aspect of public life, then the same question can be applied to cultural governance: how do policies, institutions, and decision-making mechanisms regulate the production, distribution, legitimization, and access to cultural life? Within this framework, artists and cultural institutions are not merely venues for artistic expression, but rather integral parts of how a nation manages and shapes the direction of its culture. The question is no longer simply what works are produced, but how the mechanisms governing the production of these works build Gerbulek (a cultural and economic movement) as a cultural foundation rooted in the community’s own strength—or, conversely, reproduce power relations inherited from the colonial era.
One way to examine this issue is through amateur films from the Dutch East Indies era. Generally speaking, “amateur” is often associated with grassroots practices. However, in the colonial context, amateur celluloid films actually emerged largely from the lives of the colonial class, which had access to technology, capital, mobility, and leisure time. These films documented travel, vacations, and a luxurious lifestyle as visual entertainment for colonial audiences, while their production often involved indigenous labor. This dynamic reveals a paradox between the “amateur” status of these films and the social structures that underpin them. From a historiographical perspective, these films are important for demonstrating that the ability to record, maintain archives, and determine representations of life is never neutral, but rather tied to the distribution of technology, capital, labor, and power.
The issue of capacity distribution intersects with today’s cultural funding policies. Power relations operate through seemingly technical mechanisms such as proposals, indicators, budgets, reporting, and evaluation, but within these mechanisms, negotiations take place between ideological concepts and the structural demands of funding. Community ideas must be translated into programmatic language; social practices become targets and indicators; and success must be demonstrated through documentation. As a result, so-called grassroots efforts can give rise to an intermediary class that possesses administrative capital, networks, and the ability to access resources. The question, then, is not merely who receives the funds, but whether such mechanisms enhance the capacity of the community or, on the contrary, create groups that grow increasingly powerful due to their ability to manage the distribution of resources on behalf of the community.
At the intersection of these three issues, this panel reexamines Fanon’s critique of the national middle class and the project of nationhood: how changes in formal structures do not necessarily alter the mechanisms of power distribution. From colonial amateur films to contemporary funding policies, the question at hand is who has the capacity to produce, represent, archive, manage, and define culture. Komîna Fîlm a Rojava serves as a case study for examining the potential for organizing cultural production through collective labor and networks of horizontal solidarity. Thus, this panel not only questions how culture is advanced, but also how its governance functions and whether it expands society’s capacity to become cultural subjects or, conversely, reproduces class, dependency, and power relations in new forms amid an ever-changing global configuration.
Biografi Panelis / Panelists’ Biography
Afrian Purnama adalah seorang penulis, periset seni, pembuat film, dan kurator film. Redaktur dan editor pelaksana di jurnal kritik film Jurnal Footage dari 2016 hingga 2022. Menyutradarai beberapa film panjang dan pendek, salah satunya Golden Memories – Petite Histoire of Indonesian Cinema (2017). Sinematografer film Amrus Natalsya Yang Membuat Kembali Keluarga Tandus Disendja (2022). Periset dan Ko-Kurator pameran film Kultursinema dari 2017 hingga 2021, juga beberapa kali menjadi kurator film di festival Arkipel – Jakarta International Documentary & Experimental Film Festival. Salah satu penulis dan editor buku Harimau Tjampa (2021). Saat ini aktif sebagai penulis lepas dan membesarkan platform kritik film yang didirikannya, Aspek Rasio (aspekrasio.com) .
Azalia Syahputri (b. Mataram, 1999) adalah seorang artisan kebudayaan yang saat ini berbasis di Yogyakarta. Praktiknya bergerak di antara pengorganisasian komunitas, pengembangan dan perawatan program publik, kuratorial seni, dan pengarsipan. Keterlibatannya terentang di berbagai komunitas dan institusi seperti In-Docs, Minikino, Festival Film Dokumenter, dan GAUNG. Pada tahun 2024, ia menjadi seniman residensi Youth of Today oleh Ruang MES56 dan JOFFIS. Saat ini, Azel juga mengurus arsip festival di Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival (JAFF). Ia juga menjadi peserta terpilih FIAF & L’Immagine Ritrovata Film Restoration Summer School di Bologna, Italia.
MN Fiqri (l.Palu, 1997) adalah seorang pekerja lepas desain grafis. Proyek yang ia kerjakan tersebar lintas medium publikasi cetak dan digital, antara lain desain editorial, poster, sampul buku, katalog, dan identitas visual. Ia lulus dari Jurusan Hubungan Internasional Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar. Di sana, ia mengembangkan pemahaman multidisiplin mengenai globalisasi, ekonomi politik, dan studi budaya. Bergabung dengan Mutual Study, Forum Sudutpandang di tahun 2024. Saat ini, ia sedang mengembangkan praktik artistik di Milisifilem Collective.
Afrian Purnama is a writer, art researcher, filmmaker, and film curator. He served as editor and managing editor of the film criticism journal Jurnal Footage from 2016 to 2022. He has directed several feature-length and short films, including Golden Memories – Petite Histoire of Indonesian Cinema (2017). He was the cinematographer for film Amrus Natalsya Yang Membuat Kembali Keluarga Tandus Disendja (2022). Researcher and co-curator of the Kultursinema film exhibition from 2017 to 2021; has also served as a film curator on several occasions at the Arkipel—Jakarta International Documentary & Experimental Film Festival. One of the authors and editors of the book Harimau Tjampa (2021). He is currently active as a freelance writer and is developing the film criticism platform he founded, Aspek Rasio (aspekrasio.com) .
Azalia Syahputri (b. Mataram, 1999) is a cultural artisan currently based in Yogyakarta. Her practice spans community organizing, the development and management of public programs, art curation, and archiving. Her involvement spans various communities and institutions such as In-Docs, Minikino, the Documentary Film Festival, and GAUNG. In 2024, she was selected as an artist-in-residence for the “Youth of Today” program organized by Ruang MES56 and JOFFIS. Currently, Azel also manages the festival archives at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival (JAFF). she was also selected to participate in the FIAF & L’Immagine Ritrovata Film Restoration Summer School in Bologna, Italy.
MN Fiqri (Palu) is a freelance graphic designer. The projects he works on range across various media, both print and digital, including editorial design, posters, book covers, catalogs, and visual identities. He graduated from the Department of International Relations at Hasanuddin University in Makassar. There, he developed a multidisciplinary understanding of globalization, political economy, and cultural studies. He joined Mutual Study, Forum Sudutpandang, in 2024. Currently, he is developing his artistic practice at Milisifilem Collective.
PANEL 04
Presented by
- BUNGA SIAGIAN
- AKBAR RAFSANJANI
- PRASHASTI WILUJENG PUTRI
Ekologi Solidaritas: Medan Kesadaran Internasional
Kolonialisme tidak hanya bekerja dengan menguasai tanah, tenaga kerja, dan sumber daya. Ia juga mengatur hubungan: siapa yang dapat berbicara kepada siapa, pengetahuan mana yang memperoleh legitimasi, pengalaman mana yang dapat beredar, serta dari mana suatu perjuangan harus dipandang agar dapat dikenali. Karena itu, berakhirnya pemerintahan kolonial tidak serta-merta mengakhiri hubungan yang dibentuknya. Tantangan untuk menggagalkan kolonialisme hari ini juga menjadi pertanyaan tentang bagaimana membangun hubungan baru di antara mereka yang sebelumnya ditempatkan dalam posisi yang berbeda-beda di dalam tatanan tersebut.
Dalam On National Culture, Frantz Fanon menempatkan kebudayaan sebagai bagian dari proses perjuangan yang bergerak dari kesadaran nasional menuju kesadaran internasional. Ia menolak kebudayaan nasional sebagai reproduksi masa lalu maupun peniruan terhadap bentuk-bentuk Eropa. Perjuangan kebudayaan justru memperoleh arahnya ketika pengalaman nasional membuka kesadaran yang melampaui batasnya sendiri: “It is at the heart of national consciousness that international consciousness establishes itself and thrives.” International consciousness, dengan demikian, bukan sesuatu yang datang dari luar untuk menyatukan bangsa-bangsa yang telah dibebaskan, melainkan sesuatu yang tumbuh dari hubungan di antara pengalaman perjuangan mereka sendiri.
Gagasan tersebut memiliki resonansi penting dalam pemikiran Tan Malaka. Dari pengalaman pergerakannya, Tan membaca imperialisme bukan sebagai persoalan satu bangsa, melainkan sebagai jaringan kekuasaan yang bekerja melampaui batas teritori. Kesadaran atas persamaan nasib dapat membuka hubungan di antara mereka yang mengalami penindasan, tetapi bagi Tan hubungan tersebut tidak berhenti sebagai simpati. Ia harus dibangun menjadi kerja politik: “Tangkisan saya melawan komplotan imperialisme internasional terhadap diri saya selama ini cuma usaha saya mendirikan komplotan anti-imperialisme dan anti-kapitalisme pula di mana saya berada.” Dalam cita-cita hubungan antarbangsa, perjuangan tersebut mengarah pada hubungan yang “duduk sama rendah, tegak sama tinggi.”
Dengan demikian, Tan memberi jembatan penting dari Fanon menuju pengalaman Selatan di luar konteks Afrika: internasionalisme tidak perlu menunggu terbentuknya satu pusat bersama, tetapi dapat dibangun dari tempat seseorang berada, melalui hubungan, organisasi, dan perjuangan yang saling mengenali.
Salah satu ruang historis tempat kemungkinan tersebut dicoba adalah Konferensi Asia-Afrika 1955. Bandung mempertemukan bangsa-bangsa dengan pengalaman kolonial, kondisi politik, dan latar kebudayaan yang berbeda untuk membangun bentuk kerja sama politik, ekonomi, sosial, dan kebudayaan. Ia menunjukkan bahwa solidaritas tidak hanya hadir sebagai kesamaan pengalaman, tetapi membutuhkan ruang, jaringan, pertukaran pengetahuan, organisasi, dan mekanisme yang memungkinkan bangsa-bangsa Selatan saling berhubungan tanpa harus terlebih dahulu dimediasi oleh pusat kekuasaan kolonial. Bandung dapat dibaca sebagai salah satu usaha untuk membangun kondisi material bagi kesadaran internasional—sebuah upaya untuk menciptakan hubungan baru di antara bangsa-bangsa yang sedang menggagalkan kolonialisme dalam bentuk-bentuknya masing-masing.
Namun Bandung juga meninggalkan pertanyaan yang belum selesai. Bagaimana hubungan semacam itu dapat terus hidup ketika kepentingan, sejarah, bahasa, dan posisi politik bangsa-bangsa Selatan tidak pernah sepenuhnya sama? Bagaimana solidaritas dapat bergerak dari pertemuan menuju jaringan, dari kesadaran menuju organisasi, dari deklarasi menuju praktik? Dan ketika bentuk-bentuk dominasi baru terus mengatur sirkulasi pengetahuan, kebudayaan, tenaga kerja, dan sumber daya, di mana medan perlawanan itu dapat dibangun hari ini?
Panel ini mengusulkan ekologi solidaritas sebagai cara untuk membaca pertanyaan tersebut. Ekologi dipahami bukan sebagai metafora harmoni, melainkan sebagai keseluruhan kondisi relasional yang memungkinkan pengalaman, pengetahuan, dan perjuangan yang berbeda untuk saling menemukan dan membentuk kemungkinan politik baru. Jaringan sinema dan festival, kerja pengarsipan, organisasi buruh, ruang belajar, serta bentuk-bentuk pengorganisasian lainnya dilihat bukan hanya sebagai medium yang merepresentasikan perlawanan, tetapi sebagai infrastruktur yang memungkinkan solidaritas bekerja.
Dengan memperluas horizon Fanon dari pengalaman perjuangan Afrika menuju lanskap Selatan Global, panel ini tidak bermaksud menawarkan definisi baru tentang internasionalisme. Ia justru menelusuri bagaimana international consciousness memperoleh bentuk melalui praktik-praktik konkret yang dibangun dari Selatan: bagaimana hubungan diciptakan, pengetahuan dipertukarkan, pengalaman dihubungkan, dan ruang bersama dipertahankan. Dari Fanon, Tan Malaka, dan pengalaman Bandung hingga praktik kontemporer, panel ini bergerak pada satu pertanyaan: bentuk-bentuk hubungan seperti apa yang dapat menghubungkan perlawanan-perlawanan Selatan, dan medan seperti apa yang perlu dibangun untuk terus menggagalkan kolonialisme?
Ecologies of Solidarity: Fields of International Consciousness
Colonialism does not operate solely through the control of land, labor, and resources. It also regulates relationships: who can speak to whom, which forms of knowledge receive legitimacy, which experiences are able to circulate, and from where a struggle must be viewed in order to be recognized. The end of colonial rule, therefore, does not necessarily end the relationships it produced. The challenge of cancelling colonialism today is also a question of how to build new relationships among those who have historically been positioned differently within this order.
In On National Culture, Frantz Fanon situates culture within a process of struggle that moves from national consciousness toward international consciousness. He rejects national culture as either a reproduction of the past or an imitation of European forms. Cultural struggle instead finds its direction when national experience opens itself toward a consciousness that exceeds its own boundaries: “It is at the heart of national consciousness that international consciousness establishes itself and thrives.” International consciousness, therefore, does not arrive from outside to unite already-liberated nations, but emerges through relationships among their own experiences of struggle.
This idea resonates strongly with the thought of Tan Malaka. Drawing from his experience in political movements, Tan understood imperialism not as the problem of a single nation, but as a network of power operating across territorial boundaries. A consciousness of a shared condition can create connections among those experiencing oppression, but for Tan, such relationships cannot remain at the level of sympathy. They must become political work: “My resistance against the international imperialist conspiracy against me has merely been an effort to establish an anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist conspiracy wherever I have been.” His vision of relations among peoples ultimately moves toward a condition of “sitting equally low, standing equally high.”
Tan thus provides an important bridge from Fanon toward experiences of the South beyond the African context: internationalism need not await the formation of a single common center, but can be built from where one stands, through relationships, organizations, and struggles that recognize one another.
One historical space in which such a possibility was attempted was the 1955 Asian-African Conference. Bandung brought together nations with different colonial histories, political conditions, and cultural backgrounds to develop forms of political, economic, social, and cultural cooperation. It demonstrated that solidarity does not arise from shared experience alone, but requires spaces, networks, exchanges of knowledge, organizations, and mechanisms that enable the peoples of the South to relate to one another without first being mediated by colonial centers of power. Bandung can thus be understood as an attempt to build the material conditions for international consciousness—an effort to create new relationships among nations in the process of cancelling late colonialism in their respective forms.
Yet Bandung also leaves an unfinished question. How can such relationships endure when the interests, histories, languages, and political positions of the South are never entirely the same? How can solidarity move from encounter to network, from consciousness to organization, from declaration to practice? And as new forms of domination continue to regulate the circulation of knowledge, culture, labor, and resources, where can the field of resistance be built today?
This panel proposes ecology of solidarity as a way of reading these questions. Ecology is understood not as a metaphor for harmony, but as the totality of relational conditions through which different experiences, forms of knowledge, and struggles can encounter one another and generate new political possibilities. Cinema and festival networks, archival work, labor organizations, learning spaces, and other forms of organizing are considered not merely as mediums that represent resistance, but as infrastructures through which solidarity can operate.
By extending Fanon’s horizon from the experience of African struggles toward the contemporary landscape of the Global South, the panel does not seek to offer a new definition of internationalism. Instead, it traces how international consciousness takes form through concrete practices built from the South: how relationships are created, knowledge exchanged, experiences connected, and shared spaces sustained. From Fanon and Tan Malaka to Bandung and contemporary practices, the panel moves through one central question: what forms of relationship can connect struggles across the Global South, and what fields must be built in order to continue cancelling late colonialism?
Biografi Panelis / Panelists’ Biography
Bunga Siagian adalah seniman, kurator, produser budaya. Menyelesaikan studi masternya pada ilmu Cultural Studies. Memiliki ketertarikan dengan sejarah jaringan Asia-Afrika, Internasionalisme Dunia ketiga, dan komitmen politik-sinematik kelompok kiri pada era dekolonisasi. Saat ini, sedang mengerjakan proyek kuratorial jangka panjangnya Sinefo (Sinema of New Emerging Forces).
Akbar Rafsanjani adalah pembuat film, programmer film, dan penulis asal Aceh, Indonesia. Ia telah terlibat bersama Aceh Documentary sejak 2014 dan pernah menjabat sebagai Direktur Festival Aceh Film Festival. Praktiknya mengeksplorasi persinggungan antara sinema, identitas, politik, dan masyarakat, khususnya dalam konteks Asia Tenggara, serta bagaimana sinema, pertukaran budaya, dan tulisan kritis dapat digunakan untuk mempertanyakan batas-batas dan asumsi-asumsi negara bangsa.
Prashasti Wilujeng Putri adalah seniman dan art manager dengan latar belakang Kriminologi serta Kajian Budaya dan Media. Praktik artistiknya bergerak di antara seni performans, eksperimentasi visual, film, dan riset arsip, yang dikembangkan melalui keterlibatannya bersama 69 Performance Club, Kolektif Milisifilem, dan Proyek Edisi. Karya-karyanya mengeksplorasi deformasi tubuh manusia dan hubungannya dengan relasi antar manusia, melalui praktik riset, pertunjukan, dan kerja kolaboratif. Ia terlibat dalam berbagai proyek dan jaringan, termasuk residensi Silek Art Festival, Indonesia and Southeast Asia Choreographer Network, Rotten TV, dan Mencari Kabar, serta telah mempresentasikan karya bersama 69 Performance Club di berbagai ruang di Indonesia dan internasional. Karya dan tulisannya mengenai seni performans dapat dibaca di performanceart.id dan prashasti.net.
Bunga Siagian is an artist, curator, and cultural producer. She holds a master’s degree in Cultural Studies. Her interests lie in the history of Afro-Asian networks, Third World internationalism, and the political-cinematic commitments of leftist groups during the decolonization era. She is currently working on her long-term curatorial project, Sinefo (Cinema of New Emerging Forces).
Akbar Rafsanjani is a filmmaker, film programmer, and writer from Aceh, Indonesia. He has been involved with Aceh Documentary since 2014 and previously served as the Festival Director of the Aceh Film Festival. His practice explores the intersections of cinema, identity, politics, and society—particularly within the Southeast Asian context—and examines how cinema, cultural exchange, and critical writing can be used to question the boundaries and assumptions of the nation-state.
Prashasti Wilujeng Putri is an artist and art manager with a background in Criminology and Cultural and Media Studies. Her artistic practice spans performance art, visual experimentation, film, and archival research, developed through her involvement with 69 Performance Club, Kolektif Milisifilem, and Proyek Edisi. Her work explores the deformation of the human body and its connection to interpersonal relationships through research, performance, and collaborative practice. She is involved in various projects and networks—including the Silek Art Festival residency, the Indonesia and Southeast Asia Choreographer Network, Rotten TV, and Mencari Kabar—and has presented work with 69 Performance Club at venues across Indonesia and internationally. Her work and writings on performance art can be found at performanceart.id and prashasti.net.
PANEL 05
Presented by
- MAHARDIKA YUDHA
- ZIMU ZHANG
- ADI CHANDRA WIRA ATMAJA
Sains Antikolonial: Menantang Diagnosa Dominasi
Dalam periode kolonial Perancis atas Aljazair, kekuatan medico-legal eropa mencoba menerapkan “kriminalitas” masyarakat Aljazair dan Afrika Utara sebagai hal yang deterministik, membangun dalil ‘buas sejak di pikiran’. Keilmuan psikiatri Barat seolah “melakukan lobotomi” subjek terkoloni dalam tulisan ilmiahnya yang menyatakan secara rasis bahwa orang Afrika Utara tidak menggunakan cortex dan frontal lobe mereka. Sains kolonial rupanya turut mengambil tugas biopolitis yang melegitimasi bentuk-bentuk kecurigaan, kekerasan, intervensi, dan pembiadaban para penjajah terhadap teritori jajahannya. Fanon menantang diagnosis ini lewat pembangun kronik kasus-kasus gangguan jiwa di Aljazair dan penelusuran bahwa sistem kolonial lah yang melahirkan watak keji kaum yang terhina di bawah dunia kolonial. Perang kemerdekaan Aljazair mensyahidkan kekerasan sebagai bentuk perebutan pribadi yang teralienasi dalam dunia yang dikompartmentalisasi, dipecah dua, dan diataxia penjajahan.
Pergulatan instrumen produksi pengetahuan berlanjut hingga abad ke duapuluh satu. Dengan tampaknya pertarungan multipolar dan upaya imperialisme merawat marwah peradaban mereka, setiap pengetahuan yang terproduksi harus selalu diperiksa untuk apa dan oleh siapa ia dihasilkan. Kaum yang terhina, manusia atau yang lebih-dari-manusia, selalu diberikan diagnosa tanpa mempertimbangkan agensi mereka, selalu dijadikan subordinat untuk menunda masa depan dari titik itu. Demikian, setiap diagnosis yang berpotensi manipulatif layak dibedah kembali sampai satuan terdasarnya, sampai kepada satuan data dan informasi untuk direkonstruksi sebagai tafsir yang menantang tafsir kolonialistik. Pengetahuan dari Selatan perlu melakukan pembacaan balik dan merebut pengetahuan yang institusional sekalipun agar bisa mensituasikannya sebagai barang bukti suatu kejahatan peradaban, sebagai fondasi kesadaran politis yang terbarukan.
Mengambil inspirasi dari cara Fanon mempolitisir psikiatri dalam bab 5 Les Damnés de la Terre, panel ini ingin melihat pengetahuan institusional baik dalam arsip, laporan, data, citra yang berkelindan dalam suatu sistem untuk ditinjau kembali dengan kesadaran antiimperialisme dan antikolonialisme. Pembicaraan akan menyasar rekonstruksi pengetahuan, dekolonisasi arsip, intervensi artistik, aplikasi metodologi saintifik secara revolusioner untuk membayangkan suatu pondasi yang membangun akses jalur pergi dari jaringan hirarkis ini. Panel ini ingin menghasilkan petaan strategis dalam membangun pengetahuan bersama sebagai otot-otot baru yang akan mencari daya pembebasan dari segala bentuk dominasi.
Anticolonial Science: Countering Diagnosis from Domination
During the period of French colonial rule over Algeria, European medico-legal authorities sought to establish Algerian and North African ‘criminality’ as a deterministic trait, constructing the argument that they were ‘savage by nature’. Western psychiatric science seemed to ‘perform a lobotomy’ on the colonised subjects in its scientific writings, which racially asserted that North Africans did not use their cortex or frontal lobe. Colonial science apparently took on a biopolitical role that legitimised the colonisers’ suspicion, violence, intervention and brutalisation of their colonies. Fanon challenges this diagnosis by chronicling cases of mental disorders in Algeria and tracing how it was the colonial system itself that gave rise to the vicious nature of the oppressed under the colonial order. The Algerian War of Independence revealed violence as a form of struggle waged by the alienated individual within a world that was compartmentalised, split in two, and ataxia by colonialism.
The struggle over the instruments of knowledge production continues into the twenty-first century. With the emergence of multipolar conflict and imperialist efforts to preserve the dignity of their civilisations, all knowledge produced must always be scrutinised to determine for what purpose and by whom it was produced. The wretched—whether human or ‘more-than-human’—are invariably diagnosed without consideration of their agency, and are perpetually subordinated to delay the future from that very point. Thus, any diagnosis with the potential for manipulation deserves to be dissected back to its most basic units—down to the units of data and information—so that it may be reconstructed as an interpretation that challenges colonialist interpretations. Knowledge from the South must undertake a counter-reading and reclaim even institutionalised knowledge in order to situate it as evidence of a civilisational crime, as the foundation of a renewed political consciousness.
Drawing inspiration from Fanon’s politicisation of psychiatry in Chapter 5 of Les Damnés de la Terre, this panel aims to re-examine institutional knowledge—whether in the form of archives, reports, data or images—which is interwoven within a system, through an anti-imperialist and anti-colonial lens. The discussion will focus on the reconstruction of knowledge, the decolonisation of archives, artistic interventions, and the revolutionary application of scientific methodologies to envision a foundation that paves a path out of this hierarchical network. This panel aims to produce a strategic roadmap for building collective knowledge as new ‘muscles’ that will seek the power of liberation from all forms of domination.
Biografi Panelis / Panelists’ Biography
Mahardika Yudha seorang seniman, peneliti, kurator, dan penulis yang tinggal dan berkarya di Jakarta. Ia juga pernah bekerja sebagai pengetik buku, manajer supermarket, dan pekerja di pabrik otomotif. Pada tahun 2003, ia terlibat dalam “Massroom Project” dan kemudian ikut mendirikan Forum Lenteng. Ia juga pernah menjabat sebagai Direktur Festival di OK. Video – Indonesia Media Arts Festival (2013–2017), selain secara aktif menyelenggarakan berbagai proyek pameran seni dan film untuk seniman individu maupun kelompok. Ia pernah mengikuti program residensi “Periferry [1.0], KHOJ Guwahati-Desire Machine Collective” di India (2008) dan “JENESYS Program” di Jepang (2011–2012), serta terlibat dalam proyek seni INFLUX-Riverspace (2011–2012) Sejak 2014, ia menjabat sebagai Kurator Program Pameran Kultursinema di Arkipel Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, dan pada 2018, ia menjadi Kurator Pameran Tunggal Hafiz Rancajale (@hafizrancajale) bertajuk “Social Organism” di Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Jakarta.
Salah satu karya terpentingnya, Sunrise Jive (2005), dipamerkan di SeMA Biacity Medi Seoul (2014) di Korea Selatan. Di antara karya-karyanya yang lain adalah Suara Putra Brahma (2012), The Face of the Black River (2013), Why Didn’t Ernest Dezentje Come To Wamena? (2014), rangjebor (2014, bekerja sama dengan Mohammad Fauzi), dan Golden Memories: petite histoire of Indonesian cinema (2018, bekerja sama dengan Afrian Purnama dan Syaiful Anwar).
Zimu Zhang adalah seorang akademisi di bidang humaniora lingkungan yang berspesialisasi dalam budaya visual, sinema ekologi, dan seni ekofeminis. Ia menyelesaikan penelitian doktoralnya mengenai (kontra)visualitas Antroposen dalam budaya visual Tiongkok kontemporer dengan fokus pada geografi perbatasan pada tahun 2022 di Sekolah Media Kreatif, City University of Hong Kong. Ia merupakan penerima beasiswa Landhaus 2022 di Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU, serta beasiswa VisitANTS 2023 dalam bidang Studi Kritis Keanekaragaman Hayati dan Penelitian Antroposen di Universitas Oulu, Finlandia. Ia telah mengajar mata kuliah tingkat sarjana dan magister mengenai studi media, studi film, serta mata kuliah ekomedia di City University of Hong Kong dan Lingnan University. Zimu juga aktif sebagai pembuat film, kurator, dan praktisi seni yang terlibat secara sosial. Tulisan-tulisannya telah diterbitkan di Journal of Visual Art Practice, British Journal of Chinese Studies, Chinese Independent Cinema Observer, dan Artforum. Film-film dan kurasi karyanya telah ditampilkan di European Media Art Festival, Doclisboa, Yunfest, Visible Evidence, Asian Film Archive, dan lain-lain. Saat ini, ia sedang mengadaptasi disertasi doktoralnya menjadi sebuah buku monograf sambil mengerjakan proyek penelitian yang mengkaji spekulasi ekofeminis mengenai dunia yang berpusat pada air dan melibatkan makhluk-makhluk di luar manusia di Delta Sungai Mutiara.
Adi Chandra Wira Atmaja adalah Pekerja Seni dan Penulis Lepas. Juga menulis untuk berbagai produksi seni lintas disiplin, film programming, dan ulasan seni. Habiskan sisa waktu sebagai relawan di Perpustakaan Mini Nemu Buku. Menaruh minat pada kerja-kerja penulisan, pengarsipan, serta penelitian seni dan kebudayaan.
Mahardika Yudha is an artist, researcher, curator, and writer who lives and works in Jakarta. He also has experience as a book typist, supermarket manager, and a worker in an automotive factory. In 2003, he was involved in the “Massroom Project” and later co-founded the Forum Lenteng, and is now responsible as the Coordinator of the Research and Development Division at the organization. He was also the Festival Director at OK. Video – Indonesia Media Arts Festival (2013-2017), besides actively organizing various art and film exhibition projects for individual and group artists. He has participated in residencies in the program “Periferry [1.0], KHOJ Guwahati-Desire Machine Collective” in India (2008) and “JENESYS Program” in Japan (2011-2012), as well as being involved in the art project INFLUX-Riverspace (2011-2012) Since 2014, he has been the Curator for the Kultursinema Exhibition Program at the Jakarta International ARKIPEL (@arkipel) Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, and in 2018, he was the Curator for the Hafiz Rancajale (@hafizrancajale) Solo Exhibition, “Social Organism”, at the National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta.
One of his most important works, Sunrise Jive (2005), was exhibited at the SeMA Biacity Medi Seoul (2014) in South Korea. A number of his other works, are Suara Putra Brahma (2012), The Face of the Black River (2013), Why Didn’t Ernest Dezentje Come To Wamena? (2014), rangjebor (2014, collaborating with Mohammad Fauzi), Golden Memories: petite histoire of Indonesian cinema (2018, collaborating with Afrian Purnama and Syaiful Anwar).
Zimu Zhang is an environmental humanities scholar specialized in visual culture, eco-cinema and ecofeminist arts. She completed her PhD research on Anthropocene (counter)visuality in contemporary Chinese visual culture with a focus on frontier geography in 2022 from School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. She is the recipient of the 2022 Landhaus fellowship at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU and 2023 VisitANTS fellowship in Critical Studies of Biodiversity and the Anthropocene Research at University of Oulu, Finland. She has taught both BA and Master level courses on media study, film study, ecomedia subjects in City University of Hong Kong and Lingnan University. Zimu is also an active filmmaker, curator and socially engaged art practitioner. Her writings have been published in the Journal of Visual Art Practice, British Journal of Chinese Studies, Chinese Independent Cinema Observer and Artforum . Her films and curations have been featured in European Media Art Festival, Doclisboa, Yunfest, Visible Evidence, Asian Film Archive, etc. She is currently adapting her PhD thesis into a book monograph while working on a research project that examines the ecofeminist speculations of the water-centric and more-than-human worlding of the Pearl River Delta.
Adi Chandra Wira Atmaja is an Artist and freelance writer. She also writes for various interdisciplinary arts productions, film programming, and arts reviews. She spends her spare time volunteering at the Nemu Buku Mini Library. She is interested in writing, archiving, and arts and cultural research.
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ARKIPEL – Jakarta International Documentary & Experimental Film Festival
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