Opening: Tanah Merdeka

Join us at Framer Framed for the opening of our next exhibition, Tanah Merdeka, on 24 June from 18:00. The exhibition brings together works by the Indonesian collective of art workers Taring Padi and various collaborators to reflect on the concept of land and its socio-political implications through a cross-cultural network of solidarity. Members of Taring Padi will be present at the opening, while artist and activist Richard Bell – a close comrade of Taring Padi – will offer an opening speech on the legacies of colonialism and the urgency of art and collective practice. Dutch-based Indonesian cellist Alfian Emir Adytia will activate the space with a music performance. Throughout the evening, visitors are welcome to explore the adjacent exhibition Anonim by Atelier KITLV – Framer Framed artist-in-residence Theo Frids Marulitua Hutabarat, as well as contributions by artists that will inform Non Native Native’s upcoming fair PRO$PERITY NOW!.

The featured works by Taring Padi and their collaborators are based on their shared experiences and ongoing anti-colonial work around land. Developed through methods of co-creation, the works – including woodcut posters, large-scale banners, and cardboard puppets – focus on land as the primary object of decolonial struggles, with reference to the Dutch colonial past and its continuous impact on the present day, resource extraction, agro-industrial economies, the deployment of military forces and violence, administrative techniques of occupation, and the destruction of biodiversity.

For more information about the exhibition, see the Framer Framed website.

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Taring Padi was founded in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 1998 by a group of progressive art students and activists in response to the Indonesian socio-political upheavals during the reformation era. Consequently, Taring Padi’s artistic practice is always part of and contextualises within socio-political and cultural action and solidarity with a wide range of communities and social groups. Taring Padi’s works and solidarity actions are manifested in collective works in the form of woodcut posters, large-size banners, rontek, cardboard puppets, music, carnival, and other art actions.

Framer Framed is a platform for contemporary art, visual culture, and critical theory and practice in Amsterdam. Each year, the organisation presents five to ten exhibitions and around a hundred public-facing cultural and educational programs in its main location in Amsterdam Oost, as well as its project space Werkplaats Molenwijk in Amsterdam Noord. With the belief that critical and contextualised programming is best explored with an open door and low threshold, Framer Framed’s resources are made readily available to emerging and established local and transnational communities, artists, and curators to turn their own ideas into tangible realities.

Casa do Povo is a cultural centre that revisits and reinvents notions of culture, community and memory. It was founded and is still run by the progressive Jewish community in São Paulo, Brazil. Opened in 1953, it established itself as a living monument to the memory of the millions of Jews murdered during the Second World War. Casa do Povo’s neighbourhood, Bom Retiro has historically received different waves of immigrant groups, including Greeks, Koreans, and Bolivians, among others – and they are all active and welcome participants in the house’s activities. In Casa do Povo, memory serves as a basis for the imagination and construction of a better future based on tolerance, diversity, human rights, and redistribution.

This exhibition is supported by Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap; Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst; Gemeente Amsterdam and VriendenLoterij Fonds.

Host or Publisher Framer Framed