Exhibition View: YUSUI Gallery at Koganecho Area Management Center, Yokohama, Japan

Koganecho Love Story

Installation, drawing, and radio drama

Variable Dimensions

2024

“Sri, a girl from small village in northern Yogyakarta, had to endure the suffering of her life being forced to become an ianfu (comfort woman) by Japanese soldiers. Her encounter with Daisuke enabled her to escape from the ianjo (comfort station) in Surabaya, but unfortunately, she was recaptured and taken by General Tsuyoshi to the land of the cherry blossoms. There is no more Sri, all that remained was Mayumi, her new identity. After enduring several years of hardship, Mayumi met Daisuke again by a river in Koganecho. But misfortune struck, before they could fully enjoy their love story, Mayumi perished due to bombs dropped by the allies during the attack on Yokohama”.

This project is Arief’s speculation on history, based on the information he received from interviews as well as other sources of knowledge such as books, films, and articles. Arief tries to connect a few stories about what happened in Indonesia and Japan around the 1940s. It talks about the ianfu (comfort women) taken from their homeland during the Japanese occupation in Indonesia and the personal memories of melancholic stories around Koganecho. Through a combination of imagination and facts, Arief presents a radio drama, the composition of his interviews with buildings around Koganecho, and outlines scenes for the film he intends to create. This presentation serves as both an initial draft of the project and a final presentation of the outcomes of his short residency at the Koganecho Area Management Center.