Exhibition View: 900mdpl: Ghosts of a Thousand Conversations, Kaliurang, Yogyakarta
Para Penyamun Hati (Thieves of The Heart)
Installation, video, and radio drama
Variable Dimensions
2019
In the 1970s, three mysterious women in Kaliurang were elegant and sensual. They dress modestly but still appropriately and steal the hearts of many men from villages to cities. For some, they remain a fantasy. For others, they are lovers. Sometimes they sell local snacks in the evening. Once the snacks were sold, they will probably slip away together into the night in the arms of a lucky man. At the same period, a lot of Indonesian movie was produced in such a sensual style, forcing the minister of information Ali Moertopo to create an ethical code (Decree of the Minister of Information No. 194A of 1977) to minimize the friction between film-maker and the citizen’s moral, national discipline, and submission to God almighty—a starting point of state control and intervention to the personal realm of an individual.
I use the literature-like stories of the three primadonnas of the village to create a video installation with a typical radio drama narrative from that period. He tried to imagine how these ladies live and what they talk about behind closed door; stealing man’s heart like a game yet dreaming of a settle married life beyond temporary love and transactions. Through snippets of dialogue in several films of the 1970s and photos from several locations where they used togather, and also through stories that I collected from residents around Kaliurang village. I tried to speculate how the three primadonnas chatted with each other and had a dialogue with the people around them. In addition, this work also attempts to freeze the memories of the local people towards three women who once lived and actively helped all activities in their village.
Arief Budiman 