For this project, three artefacts were chosen that have different values and “uses” and have been recently restituted from the Netherlands to Indonesia. With each artefact, a team was formed and supported in making an artistic film about it. With each team consisting of an Indonesian artist and Netherlands-based artist, three challenging and widely different video works are created about the Keris Klungkung, the Durga Mahisasuramardini and the Lombok Treasure.
This project follows the forgotten story of the Klungkung keris back to it's origins and to its post-colonial relevance to Bali today, tracing the looting of the keris to modern day tourism in Bali. The film juxtaaposes the 'knowledge' of colonial archives against community-based knowledge and mythology, convoluting the understanding of what is preserved, what is dead and what is lost.
"The Stone That Remembers" interprets the Durga Mahisasuramardini statue's journey from its home, the Singhasari Temple, to the hands of colonizers, and various museums. The film follow the patriarchal displacement of a woman that represents the Durga, exploring the parallels between the fate of the statue and many women today.
Idak-Idak-Idak is a hybrid-documentary relating the stolen Lombok Treasures with the Sasak diaspora through three generations of women: a daughter, her mother, and her grandmother. Blending full-spectrum cinematography with personal footage, this film moves between Indonesia and the Netherlands to examine colonial legacies, displacement and healing the heart of home.
In Sasak, "Idak" can be interpreted as both “heart” and “absence”, becoming a container for memory, loss, and the unseen layers of the self between generations.