KUNCI Cultural Studies Center

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CONTENTS

野生學校—從KUNCI文化研究中心的SoIE計劃談起

為熱帶博物館《荷屬東印度》常設展所做的語音導覽（節錄）

The Wild School: KUNCI School of Improper Education

An Audio Guide for the Netherlands East Indies exhibition at the Tropenmuseum (Excerpt)

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野生學校—從KUNCI文化研究中心的SoIE計劃談起

/ 陳湘汶

6 7作為日惹重要的文化研究單位，K U N C I文化研究中心

（KUNCI Cultural Studies Center）與其他藝術空間同樣位

於日惹南區活動密集的區域，藏身在小巷內並擁有一片大院

子和結實纍纍的芒果、紅毛丹。我初次到訪時他們剛整理出

一個可供進駐者居住的房間、並可能作為日後展示的小空

間。隨著各個計劃的進行，空間的樣貌也處在一個非常有

機而彈性的狀態。之後再次拜訪，在大家忙進忙出時我與

Syafiatudina（Dina）找到一個還算安靜的位置坐下，請她

談談KUNCI從2016年底開始的「KUNCI School of Improper Education」（簡稱SoIE）。

走入日常實踐

SoIE這個長期的項目可以從影響印尼很深的「平民學園」

（Taman Siswa）談起。平民學園是一所融合了西方和東方

系統的學校，他們著重閱讀、討論，並教授哲學、理論、經

濟、政治學等，此外他們也讓學生冥想、畫圖。平民學園以

它的宗旨「關懷」（caring）影響了後來的人們，這個宗旨基

於兩個原則：其一是自由作為使身體和靈魂的力量活躍並獨

自存在的必要性，第二則是自然作為生存並且快速且適當發

展的條件。1

由於SoIE是一個關於如何共同學習的計劃，成員們實驗各種

1 ”...the �rst is the freedom as the requirement to enliven and generate the power in body and soul so as to live independently. And the second is the nature as a condition to live and achieve the progress quickly and properly.”

學習的模式（model），去學習「我們是如何學習的？」這

件事。而每四個模式為一個循環，實驗結束之後會為下個三

年再規劃後四個模式，而這也是KUNCI第一次沒有設結束期

限的計劃。目前進行中的是2017至2018年，去實驗四種學校

的模式，在完成四種模式之後接著進行評估。而每種模式的

階段完成後會以書、展覽或活動等等方式來展現成果。

今年下半年進行中的是第二個學習模式，「下放」（turun ke bawah）2發想來自於思考藝術家如何去理解日常社會裡頭如

何「鬥爭」（struggle），其為藝術家提供幾項原則，其中

之一就是要走入田野並且實踐，與農民一起生活一起工作。

在對象面前藝術家不該表現出自己與他們在教育程度上的高

下，需要與他們在同個平面上對話。藝術家必須走出自己的

圈子，真正進入其他人的生活裡。

11月我第二次參加KUNCI的SoIE活動時，聽到了學員

Khairunnisa（Nisa）分享上個月她註冊成為Go Jek司機的經

驗。印尼日常生活有一個非常具特色的運輸系統—機車計程

車（Go Jek或Grab Bike等）。相較於計程汽車，機車是更

機動而深入小巷的便利交通工具，加上價格低廉，不僅是外

來旅客，連當地人也常以計程機車代步；除了載人，也有食

物、購物代送的服務。妮莎（Nisa）是一位具文化人類學背

2 1950年由一小群知識青年成立的人民文化協會（Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat, Rakyat）提出

「mukadimah」（前提），藉以回應他們所反對之「Gelanggang」組織發表榮耀革命觀點的「信念之

書」（Surat Kepertjajaan）。Lekra宣言進而呼籲藝術家協助實現建立人民共和，邀詩人和藝術家

響應加入。1965年Lekra發表新的「前提」並採行社會寫實主義教條，主張藝術應該反映社會現

實並促成社會進步而非單純探討人性。它進而推廣藝術裡的「人民」（kerakyatan）概念，鼓吹藝

術家下放（turun ke bawah）以從廣大人民身上學習。而其主張在視覺藝術的實踐顯然更勝於文

學，畫家實踐更多於作家。

8 9景的年輕女生，她回應這次SoIE的主題—藝術家如何走進日

常並實踐—選擇直接把自己丟入這個廣大的Go Jek系統成為

其中一環。有意成為Go Jek司機者必須先向政府申請到良民

證，並傳送到Go Jek總部，大約兩星期的審查後通過才能成

為正式司機，接著會收到由總部寄來工作指南、一組Go Jek司機專屬的外套和安全帽，整個過程幾乎都是線上作業，並

沒有跟任何真實的人物進行面談或交流，就算某天需要解除

合約也是以書面方式進行。

從妮莎的分享裡我們看到完全不同於乘客的手機軟體介面，

每個司機的乘客評價星等、車資收入、工作時數等都有專屬

的量化量表記錄。而乘客評價的星等會大大影響司機的積

分，這也讓我了解為什麼每次司機總是在我下車後，積極提

醒我一定要給五顆星的舉動。計程機車司機是一個龐大的群

體，不論是Go Jek或Grab Bike，在長期運作下已經發展出一

些特殊文化，我曾觀察到他們在某些熱門的叫車點，司機會

如同佔據地盤一樣的群聚在那裡，而妮莎也提到司機在社交

軟體上設立對話群組，互相分享訊息，以及曾經有過不良記

錄的乘客帳號也會通報總公司進行查驗，並由總公司方面允

許司機可以拒載該帳號的乘客。

模式是方法學、是實驗，也是故事

在開始SoIE項目之前，參與者共同決定主題，決定好四個模

式之後進行公開徵選，邀請任何人來提交計劃，並宣告這會

是長達一年的計劃，所以邀請任何願意跟KUNCI共同執行這

個項目長達一年的朋友們來投件。最終選出了20組申請案並

於2016年的11月開始第一個模式的SoIE。第二個項目在今年

11月結束，明年將執行的兩個項目，舊成員可以選擇他們是

否繼續或終止，而SoIE也將會繼續邀請不同的成員加入。

SoIE第一學期的課題是關於「平等」，學校裡面師生的平

等、機制與學生之間的平等。Dina舉了一個關於師生共同

學習的案例，在那間學校裡面老師跟學生選擇了一個他們都

不熟悉的語言來學習，因為在一般課堂裡老師總是在專業上

優於學生，所以學生必須從老師那邊來學習特定的知識，不

過如果是雙方都陌生的領域，那麼他們就能夠一起閱讀跟學

習。所以在上學期的SoIE他們選擇了手語，所有成員都不懂

這個語言的狀況下，他們嘗試幾個學習的方法但最終宣告失

敗—仍然沒有任何學員能熟練地運用手語。雖然第一個模式

在學習語言的成果上面失敗了，但他們發現在「共同學習」

上有其重要—如急迫性（urgency）—為何我們要學這個？為

何必須要一起學習？每個個體在共同學習項目中發現什麼興

趣？

因此這個實驗不只是跟集體意識有關也是對個體有所回饋

的。他們不僅在此發展了友誼，一起工作、一起閱讀並且

大方分享自己的資源，這樣的過程同時也反映關於集體

（collective）或團隊的意義。

當我們提到一個藝術社群的密切合作，這並非印尼或日惹所

專屬，從1980年代的替代空間或者藝術家團體組成開始，台

灣就已經有許許多多的藝術社群活動。然而為什麼這樣的實

踐型態會成為印尼藝術被認知的主要面貌之一，實在是耐人

尋味。日惹有許多屬性各異的藝術社群，在Dina去年撰寫〈

10 11【共同課題：印尼】生活與知識的聚合：日惹KUNCI機構如

何成為新的學校〉一文中，曾提到關於「集體」的危機：

例如，對集體生產不加思索的偏好，帶來個體與集體的二

元對立，更進一步地說，是關於非正式與正式的制衡。舉

例來說，藝術團體總被視為比美術館或學院等機構更具有

政治批判的魅力。3

與Dina相同，我對藝術社群的擔憂便是這些空間作為學院

之外的學校（alternative school）是相對於體制內的批判角

色，但是當年輕創作者將該社群的理念或創作風格奉為圭臬

時，是否將再度陷入另一個霸權的迴圈當中？Dina的回應

是，日惹的社群各自有其特徵，或者他們各有自己的技術和

語彙，所以在日惹並沒有掌握唯一話語權者；或者說它是有

很多微型中心的地方。於是，我接著詢問如果「集體」作為

研究者或策展人的對象，那麼藝術家個體在其中的位置為

何—或者說藝術家成為社群成員的必要性何在？

其實與台灣相同，早期印尼並沒有很多的美術館或者畫廊。

因此藝術家必須要自己去創造展出的機會，要為自己打造展

覽的空間，最可能的是與其他人合作（分租），直接擁有展

覽的空間；這解釋了藝術空間在印尼蓬勃出現的原因。因此

至少到現在，對年輕的創作者而言，與人一起分攤房租，營

運空間進而擁有自己的展覽空間仍是必須的。不過要如何把

自己的創作以及和集體共同創作給分開來，對藝術家來說仍

3 Sya�atudina著、彭若瑩譯，〈【共同課題：印尼】生活與知識的聚合：日惹KUNCI機構如何成為

新的學校〉，「關鍵評論」網站：https://www.thenewslens.com/article/59828。（擷取日期：2017/11/5）

是進行式中的挑戰。即使對Dina個人而言也是如此，作為一

位書寫者和策展人，她個人的計劃與KUNCI計劃之間如何平

衡，仍然是一個課題。藝術家也許會想在集體的集體創作之

外，仍然擁有自己的聲音，然而Dina坦言她沒有特意劃分兩

者，原因是她自己的計劃經常是從KUNCI的實踐中慢慢發想

成型。

教育系統的失衡與藝術計畫補缺

不僅是SoIE，在走訪印尼幾個城市的過程裡，我聽到了許

多因為城鄉差距、體制腐敗而對教育體制反動或者自組校外

課程的案例。幾位在今年執行一個「Floating School」計劃

的大學生，他們頻繁前往蘇拉威西島以外的小島，以七個主

題（攝影、舞蹈、音樂、電腦、化學�等）每週末帶領小島

上的學生進行戶外實踐的課程。因為地處偏遠加上教育體制

不良，這些居住在中心以外的孩子可能經過一整個學期卻只

能有兩次見到那些城市來的教師，其中一次就直接是學期測

驗。就算有電腦課，也是用課本紙上談兵，沒有親手觸碰過

鍵盤。這個學校將材料、機器直接交到學生手中讓他們學習

操作，並保留課程彈性讓學生自主決定上課內容，在今年11月他們也將攝影課程的成果帶進望加錫雙年展中展出。

當我提問為什麼這麼多的團體或計劃針對印尼的教育系統進

行反思？Dina答，首先是學費越來越貴，所以人民沒辦法

負擔。特別是印尼的發展中心集中在爪哇島上，人們為了要

上好的學校或者尋求好的機會必須前往爪哇島，就算政府有

意識要在其他島上創造機會，但是他們缺少人文資源，因為

12 幾乎所有的年輕學者都集中在爪哇島上。另一方面與殖民歷

史有關，知識（knowledge）與技術（skill）被分開。西方

殖民者在此建立自己的學校傳授理性，而非理性的系統來自

「野生學校」（wild school）和「非正式學校」（informal school），它們組裝自人民自我的意識。這可能是現在藝術

家持續關心教育系統的原因。印尼教育體制的現況太過著重

於「技術」，教育的目的是給學生擁有一項討生活的技術例

如外文、電腦等，即便某天教育體制好轉，藝術和人文方面

的知識始終還是缺席。

14 為熱帶博物館《荷屬東印度》常設展所做的語音導覽（節錄）

/ KUNCI Culture Studies Center

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16 17本文是由印尼日惹的KUNCI文化研究中心於荷蘭熱帶博物館

的《荷屬東印度》常設展所實現的聲音導覽現地計劃之部份

文字節錄。這個計劃也是KUNCI在這個博物館為期六週的研

究進駐生產，由獨立平台「Hetertropics」與荷蘭的物質文

化研究院所促成。這個聲音導覽可以在美術館聆聽，也可以

在線上播放。故事線可以視為從2003年開始的常設展所陳列

器物的某種另類閱讀。展覽是透過真人尺寸的蠟像與人造物

形塑的殖民劇場，目標是提供受眾關於「東印度群島」日常

生活的敘事場景，探索諸如「教學」、「藝術」、「家居」

、「商業」、「發明」與「表演」等領域。透過「蘇拉絲忒

莉」這位在作家Suwarsih Djodjopuspito筆下的《邊界之外》

（Buiten het Gareel）小說主角的聲音，聽者會在其中發現博

物館的凝視呈現如同聲稱殖民歷史的媒介，兩者都是這位東

印度群島女性的根本元素。

配音員名單

1. 主要敘述者，蘇拉絲忒莉：Nuning2. 摘要：Dina, Ferdi3. 導言：Damayanti

4. 蘇瓦希的結語：Gita

定點一

你站在蘇拉絲忒莉（Sulastri）的假人（《東印度群島：教

育》）面前。你可以選擇站在看得見展示櫃裡的所有荷屬東

印度圖書與其他教材的位置，也可以選擇站在播放著殖民時

期的學校啟用紀錄影像的銀幕之前。

我的名字是「蘇拉絲忒莉」，或起碼那是我現在的身體被博

物館賦予的名字。我擁有不只一個歲數，作為一個無名的蠟

像假人，我經歷將近86個年頭，在抵達這座博物館以前，我

先是在1931年在巴黎的世界博覽會上被展示，接著我成了

一位阿姆斯特丹食物與衛生展覽上的食品賣家。接著來到這

座博物館，我又成了一個賣香草飲料的小販，然後是蠟染技

師，從開始到這個時候，我都仍然沒有名字，只有我的身體

在博物館內空間分配的社會定位。在像這樣的時候，他們也

總是把我套在一件寒愴的芭雅服（Kebaya）裡，從1931年到

現在都沒有改變。

要一直到2003以後，我才被賦予一個新的角色。現在我是由

一位印尼女性所寫的自傳性小說裡的半虛構人物，作家的名

字叫「蘇瓦希」（Suwarsih Djodjopuspito）。蘇拉希先在

1940年用荷蘭語或英語寫成小說，書名是《邊界之外》。而

後在1975年，這本書被翻譯成印尼語並換上新書名：《自由

人》（Manusia Bebas）。嗯�自由人，我懷疑任意配置在我

身上的角色，與成為一個自由人有什麼關係？

18 19你往蘇拉絲忒莉的說明文字走上前兩步。

我永遠不清楚，在我下方播放的解說錄音是從何時起開始失

聲。且試著按一按在姓名標籤底下的綠色按鈕，你聽得到任

何聲音嗎？你現在聽到的聲音基本上是我第一次可以發出的

聲音。當然這不完全是我自己的聲音，你可以聽見在更底層

的部份，是那個使這座假人得以成為「我」的人聲，你還可

以聽見作為角色創作者的蘇瓦希的聲音，接著有許多來自日

惹的研究團隊幫我錄製的聲音。他們總是忙著拼湊這些詞

語，使我可以用不同聲音和你說話。我對他們如何借用我的

身體無能為力。作為一個假人，我死而復生多次了。我是被

編派的，因此我能走進歷史的時光通道。所幸有這具身體，

我不必畏懼這些旅程會使我感到疲累。

在蘇瓦希女士的小說裡，命運促使我提筆開始寫作。創造我

這個虛構角色的作者是人妻、是人母，也是一名行動主義

者、一名老師與一名作家。我在小說裡的命運，和蘇瓦希自

傳中掙扎於荷蘭殖民的機運與包袱難以區別。有八分之一、

四分之一，或者一半的我都存在蘇瓦希的生命故事裡，正如

她有一部份的自己也存在我的身上。通過這個聲音，我會全

程指引你聆聽圍繞著我的美夢與記憶。或許我的身體在時光

中冰冷僵硬，但我的聲音卻飛馳奔流於時間渠道中。

蘇拉絲忒莉的手振筆疾書，將紙張籠罩在陰影底下。一排

字母變成字彙，字彙變成詞句，試圖將回憶圈入無數行句

子裡。她已感覺不到時間的移動，她的身體一點也不累。

這個夜晚，她開啟了新的一頁。（蘇瓦希，1975：14）

我了解自己屬於比較幸運的一群。我的家人得以讓我在泗水

（Surabaya）培養歐洲教師的學院接受職業教育。另一方

面，我也受惠於荷蘭殖民政府的種族政策，這項政策另闢蹊

徑，重新界定荷屬東印度群島的知識生產作用。但是對我而

言，獲取社會特權所引發的感受更勝於尷尬。我和我的丈夫

蘇達莫（Sudarmo）選擇搬到別處打拚。我們建造一所野生

學校（wild school）。這是我們播下自由種子的地方，壓迫

下的自由。自由應該是這座島上的根本生命趨力。但自由與

現代性的關係該如何定位？

跟著我的聲音走，我將帶你通過幻想的曲折小徑。我會介紹

你一些我在這裡的朋友：不同假人、繪畫、書寫。我們都被

聚集在此地來賦予這一座殖民主義劇場的生命，這個舞台是

名為博物館的結構，它之建造是為了搜刮在很遠、很遠的領

土聲稱的財產。誰擁有印度尼西亞的故事？誰擁有它的歷

史？誰又擁有印度尼西亞的知識？

看一看這棟建築—它看起來像一座蒐集藝品與檔案的城堡。

我常常在想，在母國的年輕人是否曾見過所有這些被強行留

在此地的物品，老實說我滿懷疑的。再一次，問題在於距

離。但是這次，在於制度性構成的距離，自收藏品的展示邏

輯撐開，並由掌控這些的官僚制所捍衛著。

昨天下午我看見一群高中學生走進這個地方。他們被學校指

定來此參訪，我能聽見他們一面嘰嘰喳喳一面走路通過的聲

音。有些學生在繪畫、地圖、其他假人之前停下來，接著他

們掏出小筆記來抄寫，有些人則在我面前駐足。這些年輕的

荷蘭人腦袋裡想什麼？他們對我的母國了解多少—後者在這

20 21棟建築物內仍命名為「荷屬東印度」？他們對聯合東印度公

司（Vereenigde Oost-indische Compagnie，簡稱VOC）

了解多少？在我們的歷史書上，關於荷蘭殖民印尼歷史的敘

述充斥著人名和地名，日期和事件。這些名詞作為某種我們

全部必須記憶、銘刻於腦海的事物而存在著，這待遇彷彿它

們就是曼陀羅或魔法符咒似的。它們相當程度地形塑了印尼

人認知荷蘭的方式。我很好奇這裡的學生是讀怎樣的歷史課

本。荷蘭人在印尼的殖民時期被描述成何種模樣？這些書中

又如何呈現印尼？

我只是一個非正規學校的教師，沒有改變歷史學科該如何在

學校裡教授的方向。在我的限制裡，我能通過這種聲音導覽

而提供的，只是揭露在看似明顯的表象底下隱藏的事物。我

想要發出得以製造漣漪的聲音，或大或小，通過這些擾動殖

民歷史的凝視，因為我常覺得這個國家的歷史過於扁平。

如今，將你的頭轉向右邊。你看見隔壁的房間嗎？那個房間

裝滿令人驚奇的物品，是或許是你永遠無法在他們原產地發

現的事物。他們稱之為「珍奇櫃」。讓我們走進那裡，走向

那位在書桌後工作，留著一頭銀色長髮的先生，他的名字是

「朗弗埃斯」（G. E. Rumphius ）1。

1 全名Georg Eberhard Rumphius（November 1, 1627年11月1日～1702年6月15日），是出生於德國

的植物學家，受僱於荷屬東印度公司於現今的印尼東部，他最有名的成就則是在面對種種個人

悲劇時完成的著作《安汶植物誌》（Herbarium Amboinense）。除了他於植物分類學的主要貢獻

之外，他也因為於安汶人民的貢獻而備受懷念。

定點二

你站在那個叫做「丁香與粉末」的房間裡，距離房間角落的

朗佛埃斯假人有25步的距離。

朗弗埃斯1627年出生於德國。當他26歲的時候，他應徵到

一個聯合東印度公司的職位。然後他旅行到爪哇島，並搬到

安汶島（Ambon）。他在那裡住到去世為止，可憐的老朗弗

埃思。這位德國科學家擁有驚人的收藏，並為東印度群島的

數以千計植物和各種貝類加以分類、命名。成年以後的全部

歲月，他都執迷於完成安汶令人目不暇給的熱帶生物品種圖

鑑。

我對他感覺憐憫，因為他的生命也充滿著一連串悲劇。誠

然，假如你想要在這間美術館擁有令人尊重的地位，你要不

是超級人生勝利組，不然就是超級命運多舛。假如你注定只

有平庸的一生，你只能當一個默默無名的假人，就像我過去

的遭遇一樣。

所以你覺得朗弗埃斯的人像為何在此展示呢？有一點是，他

的視覺受損。在43歲的時候，在他尚未於科學界成名以前，

朗弗埃斯得了青光眼。他用手指感受貝殼的型態。倫弗埃斯

會用爪哇語、印度語、葡萄牙語、華語和荷蘭語為他的植物

與貝類收藏命名。

朗弗埃斯是一位獨特的科學家。他的工作混合了科學的理性

主義和冒險家的想像心靈。他為人展示存在理性知識的邊界

以外的事物，他為海貝取了非常有趣的名字，諸如夢幻小

22 23號，王子的葬禮，農民音樂和雙維納斯豎琴。你可以想像這

些貝殼在他手中如何變成這樣的名字？

朗弗埃斯的凝視是一顆好奇心靈的想像凝視。長途跋涉，遠

行他方，異國情調和幻想是超越現實所見的元素。好奇與迷

戀不是我們共有的品質嗎？過去，我們習慣把荷蘭人稱作「

玉米頭」或「貓眼」，因為他們的頭髮幾乎都像玉米一樣金

黃，眼睛都像貓一樣藍。我們著迷於荷蘭人和本地人的差

異，但是，當我們在丈夫做的報紙上這樣寫時，殖民警察局

就關閉他的事業，因為他們覺得被侮辱了。不過我丈夫也憤

怒地回應，他說他只是描述他所見的。事實就是如此。不幸

的是在過去，只有歐洲人的凝視與幻想得以自由地漫遊在我

們的土地上。

想想這一點，事實上荷蘭殖民者的凝視，比起視力不佳的朗

弗埃斯的凝視更糟糕。朗弗埃斯起碼會努力向當地人民詢問

關於安汶的植物和貝殼資訊。相反的，殖民勢力卻傾向對於

非我族類所面臨的現實睜一隻眼閉一隻眼。其中某些人更感

興趣於隨自己的喜好而創造所屬的夢幻世界。

原諒我的壞脾氣，但是看看你的右邊，看看那張大地圖和底

下的大砲。這張地圖是荷蘭人剛抵達爪哇以前的30年前畫

的，他們炸毀「查雅加達」（Jayakarta，勝利之城）的皇宮

居所，換成荷蘭建築樣式的塔樓。他們建造運河和碉堡。地

圖是一項治理空間的工具。在佔領母國許久之後，殖民迷戀

的凝視換成了殖民知識的凝視。這種凝視是一種飢渴地吞噬

所有其他知識的目光，而那些知識早已存在此地許久了。

讓我們留下朗弗埃斯在此，走回其他房間。我將讓你看見另

一種仍然佔據著荷蘭人與印尼人心靈至今的殖民凝視。

定點三

你走28步回到蘇拉絲忒莉站立的地方，接著左轉到她對面

的那一區。你坐在長椅上，你看見朗弗埃斯的書在書桌上展

開，它用一條鎖鏈繫在桌上，這樣就沒有人可以偷走。

看著那張掛在前方右邊的油畫。你看見什麼？它們是否令你

想起什麼？在那樣的油畫裡，一切看起來都很美麗，一切感

受都如此平靜。十分夢幻不是嗎？那是一套熱帶夢幻世界與

幻想的劇本。相同的意象曾驅使某一代的歐洲人湧向這個名

為「東印度」的新殖民地。他們將我們的母國描繪成一個蔥

蔥鬱鬱的、有著豐富的自然資源與美麗女子的土地。某些這

種繪畫描繪著殖民基礎設施的建設—火車和鐵軌，柏油路，

單車、汽車和旅館。它們都是確保在這塊熱帶大地上生活舒

適的必要設施。

荷蘭人知道有許多精靈和鬼魂住在椰子樹緣和濃密的蕉葉下

嗎？他們知道茉莉的味道通常帶給我一種鄉愁的感受嗎？或

者我不應該那樣說，因為這會讓我給人一種不像現代女性的

印象。對如今的我而言，這所有自然的美好只不過是一種注

定一死的存有。留下來的是人們用以認知事物的，凝視的政

治。這種政治的存在只是為了確保凝視持續作用。

19世紀描繪東印度風景的全景繪畫，得以利用並複製了

24 25殖民的手段，促進了繪製地圖者、測量員以及導航員的

技巧，於同時作為自身征討的文化工具，描述荷蘭人開

拓而宣稱新領地的同時將其描繪為尚未被開發的特定故

事。這些將荷蘭人掠奪合理化的視覺論述，沒有比這種

名為「美哉印地」（mooi indie2）的風景畫風更為明顯的

表現，也是19世紀荷蘭殖民東印度群島的主要繪畫作品。

（Protschky 2011：82-83）3

山丘、椰影、稻穗成了這些畫家不可或缺的三元素...假如真有畫家大膽描繪這三元素以外的主題，並試圖在此

地的畫廊販賣這類畫作，那麼畫商並定會這麼說：「Dat

is niet voor ons, meneer」（這不是我們想要的，先生）

。它真正的意思是：「Dat is niet voor de toeristen of de

gepensionnerde [sic] Hollanders, meneer」（這不是觀光客

或退休的荷蘭人的，先生）。這樣的畫家假如希望不於肺

結核，他最好儘快成為一名教師或找一份像是記帳員之類

的工作。（Soedjojono 2000，於Protschky 2011，83）

這也是為何我看「美哉印地」的東印度繪畫總是有點遲疑，

它阻止可以成為某種提供對環境批判觀點的作品。這種關於

我的母國的理想呈現隱蔽了許多有問題的東西，它被用以提

升加諸空間的控制以及形塑歐洲治理施加被殖民者的觀點。

但在同時，我可以理解這種殖民凝視的保留也作用在許多方

2 原文為Mooi Indie（荷蘭文「美麗的東印度」）原本是Du Chattel的11幅描述東印度群島的複

製水彩畫1930年在阿姆斯特丹出版時所創造的一個名詞，後來是因為1939年的印尼藝術家 Sudjojono用以戲謔那些僅僅描繪東印度美麗景色的畫家而為人所知。3 Susie Protschky, Images of the Tropics: Environment & Visual Culture in Colonial Indonesia, 2011.

面。我記得我自己的學生如何複製這種優美如畫的意象。每

次我要求他們畫圖，學生們總是畫同樣的景色：幾座山峰，

停在地平線上的太陽，穿越金黃梯田的蜿蜒小路消失在那條

地平線後。「美哉印地」作為一種殖民凝視的政治，涓滴滲

透，無疑穿透了那之後的好幾代。

有時一個念頭會飄過我的腦海，或許要求學生停止描繪相同

的風景，停止模仿一再重複的山峰與梯田是無用的。對我而

言更重要的是，如何創造對話好讓我們可以開始瓦解這種殖

民的凝視？對我而言重要的是，如何帶回被這片美麗的風景

給推擠到一旁或掩蓋在底下的其他事物？但怎樣的事物是真

正被抹除了的？這個問題可以藉由了解真實的背景而先釐

清。

（翻書的聲音）現在請翻到朗弗埃斯的那本拴在桌上的書籍

第一頁。你看見什麼？你所見的也是我所見的嗎？是的，這

就是我的意思，你看見一張雄性生殖器的小圖。兩週之前，

我看見某個年輕的女人在這本書上塗寫著。或許她只是惡作

劇。轉向你的背面，然後看看地板上的記號，你看見那些有

著狗爪印形狀的藍點嗎？或許那也是其他人的惡作劇。但要

擺脫留在博物館地板上的狗爪印，很顯然是更困難的。你可

以想像有誰可以這麼做，到底是他或她可以帶一罐顏料躲過

博物館的保全耳目潛入而不被發現嗎？

這些當然都是人為破壞。但是他們也帶給我一個如何干擾此處

展品陳列邏輯的點子。這種荷蘭殖民史的論述裡，有一個主要

的問題就是，嘗試透過日常對話處理這些事物的匱乏。我想我

們可以做的就是，確實讓這些殖民歷史的痕跡更為清晰可見。

26 The Wild School: KUNCI School of Improper Education

/ Chen Hsiang-Wen

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slate

d by

Zoe

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u

28 29As an important cultural research institution in Yogyakarta, KUNCI Cultural Studies Center is located in a crowded southern district of Yogyakarta like any other art organizations. It is hidden in an alleyway with a large yard full of ripe mangos and rambutans. During my first visit, they had just finished renovating a room for residency, and it might serve as a small space for future exhibitions. Along with the progress of each project, the space has maintained in a very organic and flexible state. Someday after, I had a chance to visit KUNCI again. While everyone was bustling around, Syafiatudina (also known as Dina) and I found a rather quiet space to sit down and she began to talk about the project of "KUNCI School of Improper Education" (SoIE) that started off from the end of year 2016.

Get Into Daily Practice

SoIE, this long-term project can be traced back from “Taman Siswa” (people’s school) that had rooted an intensive influences in Indonesia. Tawan Siswa, a school which combined western and eastern educational systems, focused on reading, discussions and the lectures of philosophy, theory, economics, politics, etc. In addition, they also encouraged students to practice meditating and drawing. Taman Siswa gave an impact to the later generations with its mission “caring”. This mission was based on two principles: The first is the freedom as the requirement to enliven and generate the power in body and soul so as to live independently. And the second is the Nature as a condition to live and achieve the progress quickly and properly.

Since SoIE is a project about how to learn together, members will go through various learning models to become aware of “how we learn?” Every four models form a loop, and after this experimentation, the following four models will be planned out for the next three years. This is the very first project of KUNCI that has no deadline. During 2017 to 2018, this project is expected to experiment four school models and evaluate the result after completion. The result of each model will be presented with books, exhibitions or events and so on.

In the second half of 2017, the second learning model “turun ke bawah” (going below) is underway. “Turun ke bawah” is inspired by the dialectic attitude of how artists think about “struggle” in everyday life.1 This model offers several principles for artists to follow. One of them is to go into the fields, work and live together with the peasants. Another one is that the artists should communicate with people on the same level instead of rivaling on the educational background. The other is that the artists must truly get involved in the lives of others by stepping out their own social circle.

I joined SoIE by KUNCI the second time in November, and I

1 In 1950, LEKRA (Lembaga kebudayaan Rakyat) was founded by a group of younger intellectuals in opposition to the “Gelanggang” group, which was loosely associated with PSI and PNI had published a “Surat Kepertjajaan” (letter of belief) glorifying its views of the revolution. Lekra published its man-ifesto called on artists to help realize the goal of establishing a People’s Democratic Republic. In 1956, Lekra published a new “Mukadimah” and adopted the doctrine of socialist realism, arguing art should re�ect social realities and promote social progress rather than simply explore the humanity. It partic-ularly promoted the idea of “people-ness” (Kerakyatan) in art and urged artists to move downward (turun ke bawah) to draw inspiration from the mass of the people. Lekra was rather more successful in recruiting in the visual arts than in literature.

30 31listened to the member Khairunnisa shared her experience on signing up for being a Go Jek driver a few months ago. In the daily life of Indonesia, there is a very exceptional transportation system known as motorcycle taxi (i.e. Go Jek or Grab Bike) favored by foreign tourists and locals because it is much more convenient and flexible to make its way through alleys, and also cheaper in comparison with automobile taxis. Motorcycle taxi serves more than just pickups, it provides food and shopping delivery as well. Nisa is a young girl with a cultural anthropology background and she responded to this theme of SoIE “how artists get into daily life and practice” by becoming a driver in this vast Go Jek network. Anyone who intends to become a Go Jek driver must first apply for Police Clearance Certificate from the government and send it to Go Jek head office for approval. The verification process takes about two weeks, the applicant officially becomes a driver once the application is approved and will then receive work guide, a set of Go Jek jacket and helmet. All the procedures mentioned are online, which means there is no interview and contact with any actual personnel, therefore even the termination of the contract will also be carried out via written form.

From the sharing of Nisa, we can see a completely different mobile app interface from the passenger's, including each driver's passenger rating section, earnings, working hours and so, are all dedicated exclusively through quantitative scale records. The passenger’s rating greatly affects the driver's credits, so no wonder that is why the driver always reminds me to rate her/him five stars when getting off the motorbike. These motorbike taxi drivers assemble as a large group, either Go Jek or Grab Bike have developed their distinguished cultures under a long term of

operation. I have observed that some drivers congregate in groups at some hotspots as if they are marking their territory. Nisa also mentioned that drivers set up dialogue groups on social media app to share information with each other. The accounts of passengers who once had bad records will also be reported to the head office for verification, and once the head office grants the blacklist, the drivers are allowed to refuse carrying the passengers with the corresponding accounts.

Methodology, experimentation & the story as the model

Before starting out SoIE, the participants decided on the theme together, and after the four models had been selected, the open calls began. The open calls announced that SoIE would be a year-long project which welcomed anyone who had an interest to devote themselves with KUNCI to propose the plan. Twenty proposals were selected and began the first model of SoIE in November 2016. The second model ended in November 2017. For the two following models to be conducting next year, the senior member can decide either to continue or drop out of the project as SoIE will keep inviting different members to join in.

For the first semester of SoIE, the theme revolves around “equality”, including the equality between teachers and students in school, and students and systems as well. Dina took a collective learning case of teachers and students as an example. In that school, teachers and students chose to learn a language that they both were not familiar with. In most of the occasions, teachers always master superior profession toward the students; that is

32 33why students must learn particular knowledge from teachers. However, if the field of learning target is something they both have no knowledge of, they are able to study and learn together. As a result, for the first semester of SoIE, they chose to learn a sign language that no member has any idea about. They tried several methods of learning but still no member was able to master the sign language fluently at the end, so the attempt eventually failed. Although the first model of learning a language was unsuccessful, they discovered the importance of “collective learning”, such as “urgency”: Why do we learn this? Why do we have to study together? And what fun does every individual get from collective learning?

Therefore, not only is this experiment related to collective awareness but it is also rewarding to individuals. The members developed friendships, worked together, read together, and generously shared their resources. The process simultaneously reflects the true spirit of “collective” and being in a team. When we talk about the close collaboration of an art community, it is not an exclusive model to Indonesia or Yogyakarta as there were already a lot of alternative spaces and artist communities since the 1980s in Taiwan. However, the question “why such a practice model has become one of the main recognized aspects of Indonesian art” appears to be intriguing. There are many art communities with diverse characteristics and approaches in Yogyakarta. In Dina’s article “Common Tasks: Indonesia - Aggregation of Living and Knowledge: How KUNCI Become a New School”, she has mentioned the crisis of “collective”:

For instance, having preference on collective production without any

hesitation brings about dualism of the individual and the collective. To

be more precisely, it is a matter of negotiating and balancing between

informality and formality. Taking Artist groups as an example, they

are considered to have more charisma in making political criticism

than institution such as art museum or academia.2

These art organizations play critical role and serve as an alternative school outside academia. However, similar to what Dina had in mind, I am more concern about the occurrence of a new hegemony if the young talents only take the concept and style of a certain leading art community as the guiding principle. Dina responded to my concern in an optimistic way. She thought that the communities in Yogyakarta have their own uniqueness, or they have their specific skills and languages, thus no particular group in Yogyakarta has the sole right to speak; or we can say that Yogyakarta is where many micro-centers exist. Then I asked further: “if the ʽcollectiveʼ is regarded as the research target for researchers or curators, then what is the position of individual artist within? Or to put it this way: what is the necessity of an artist to become a community member?”

In fact the circumstance was similar in Taiwan and Indonesia; there were not many art museums or galleries in early days. Therefore, artists must rely on their own to create exhibition opportunities or to build exhibition space for themselves. The most common way is to cooperate or share the rent with others in order to get

2 Sya�atudina, Jo Ying Peng trans, “Common Tasks: Indonesia - Aggregation of Living and Knowl-edge: How KUNCI Become a New School“, �e News Lens. Retrieved November 5th, 2017, from https://www.thenewslens.com/article/59828.

34 35an exhibition space directly; this might explain why the art spaces are thriving in Indonesia. So up until now, it is still necessary for young talents to share the rent with others, run a space and further obtain exhibition space of their own. However, it remains still as an ongoing challenge for artists to distinguish their own creations from collective creations. As both a writer and a curator, Dina encounters the same task of balancing her personal plan and KUNCI’s. The artist may hope to retain her/his own voice in addition to the groupʼs collective work, yet Dina frankly acknowledged that she did not specifically divide the two because her own plans often slowly take shapes from the practices in KUNCI.

The Imbalance of Educational System & its Compensation from Art Project

During my visit to several cities in Indonesia, I have heard not only SoIE but also many other cases of reacting to education system or self-organizing courses outside school due to the fact of urban-rural divide and the corruption of system. Several university students who initiate “Floating School” project this year frequently go to small islands outside Sulawesi. They take the students there outdoor every weekend in order to put the seven themes of subjects (photography, dancing, music, computer skills, chemistry, etc) into practice. Owing to the fact of living in remote rural and suffering from the malfunction of education system, these children who live outside the center are very likely to meet teachers from the city only twice in a whole semester, and once would be the term exam. Moreover, even they have computer course, they could only learn the skills from the textbook without actual experience

using computer keyboard. Floating School provides materials and instruments directly to the students so that they can learn from implantation. It also retains the flexibility of curriculums for students to decide on their course content. This year, Floating school is going to exhibit the photographic works of these students in Makassar Biennale in November.

When I asked why so many communities or projects reflect on Indonesian education system, Dina said the primary reason is that people cannot afford the tuition fee as it increases dramatically. Furthermore, due to the fact the development resources are in particular centered on Java Island, people must go there for attending better schools or seeking promising opportunities. Even the government is conscious of creating opportunities on other islands, the human resources are still missing since most of the youngster has flocked to Java Island. On the other hand, the reason might have something to do with the colonial history while the knowledge and skill was separated; the western colonist built up school for tutoring rationality whereas the sensibility and the people’s awareness came from wild school and informal school. This is probably why the artists nowadays keep caring for education system. The current Indonesian education system put too much emphasis on “skills”. The purpose of education is to help students cultivate certain skills such as foreign languages and computer techniques. Even if someday the education system improves, the knowledge of art and humanity will always be absent in schools.

An Audio Guide for the Netherlands East Indies exhibition at the Tropenmuseum (Excerpt)/ KUNCI Cultural Studies Center

38 39The article is an excerpt of the audio guide which is a site-specific project realized by KUNCI Cultural Studies Center (Yogyakarta) in the Netherlands East exhibition at Tropenmuseum. It was produced in KUNCI’s 6-week research residency at the museum; a project facilitated by the independent platform Heterotropics and the Research Center for Material Culture. The audio guide can be listened online or in the museum. The storyline serves as an alternative reading of the objects displayed in the permanent exhibition since 2003. The exhibition is fashioned as a colonial theater through life-size mannequins and artifacts, which aims to provide the audience with narrative sceneries of the daily life in “East Indies”, exploring realms such as ‘Education’, ‘Art’, ‘At Home’, ‘Commerce’, ‘Discovery’, and ‘Presentation’. With the voice of “Sulastri”, the main character of Suwarsih Djojopuspito's Buiten het Gareel, the listener find in it the representation of the museum’s gaze as well as a medium for reclaiming colonial history, both are the very elements of this figure of the East Indies woman.

The Voiceover List (for this excerpt)

1. Main narrator, Sulastri: Nuning2. Quotes: Dina, Ferdi

3. Instruction: Damayanti4. Suwarsih's ending: Gita

POINT ONE

STAND IN FRONT OF SULASTRI'S MANNEQUIN (EDICATION IN EAST INDIES). YOU CAN CHOOSE TO STAND IN THE POSITION WHERE YOU CAN SEE ALL THE BOOKS AND OTHER TEACHING MATERIALS IN NETHERLAND EAST INDIES THAT KEPT ON THE VIRTRINES. OR YOU CAN ALSO STAND IN FRONT OF THE SCREEN THAT PLAYS THE FOOTAGE OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SCHOOL DURING THE PERIOD.

My name is Sulastri, or at least that is the name that was given to my current body by this museum. I have more than one age. As a nameless wax mannequin, I have reached 86 years of age. Before arriving to the museum, I was first displayed at the World Exhibition Forum in Paris, 1931. I was first created as a tobacco sorter, then I became a food seller in an exhibition on Food and Hygiene in Amsterdam. Then in this museum I was turned into an herbal drink vendor, then a batik maker. And all along this time, I remained nameless, except from the social positioning that was attached to my body inside this museum space. During these times also they always put me in a shabby kebaya, it had not been changed since 1931.

It was only since 2003, that I was given a new role. I am now a semi-fictional character of an autobiographical novel that is written by an Indonesian woman, her name is Suwarsih Djodjopuspito. Suwarsih first wrote her novel in Dutch language in 1940, the book was titled Buiten het Gareel, or in English, Outside of the border. Then in 1975 it was translated to Indonesian using a new title: Manusia Bebas or Free Person. Hmm... a free person, I wonder

40 41what is the relation between having all these random roles attached to my body for so long with being a free person?

WALK TWO STEPS TOWARDS THE TEXT DESCRIBING SULASTRI.

It was never clear to me since when did the sound of the audio fragment located below me went broken. Just try and press the green button underneath my name tag. Can you hear anything...The voice that you are listening to now is basically the first time I got my voice back again. Of course this is not fully my own voice. You can also hear somewhere deep inside, the voice of the person who made me as this mannequin, you can also hear the voice of Suwarsih Djodjopuspito who created my character, and then there are the many voices of the group of researchers from Yogyakarta who recorded my voice. They have been busy trying to piece together these words, so that I can speak to you with a different voice. I can’t do anything but to let them to borrow my body. As a mannequin, I live and I die again for so many times. I was made so that I can walk through the time tunnel of history, and luckily with this body I don’t have to be afraid of getting tired by this entire journey.

In Madam Suwarsih’s novel, my destiny has led my fingers to start writing. The creator of my fictional character is a wife, a mother, an activist, a teacher and a writer. My destiny in the novel got entangled with Suwarsih’s biography as she struggled with the chances and burdens of Dutch colonialism. There is an one eighth, one quarter, or half of me in Suwarsih’s life story, as much as there

were parts of her in my own being. Through this voice, I shall guide you through to listen to the dreams and memories that are revolving around me. Perhaps my body is stiff, frozen through time, but my voice is fleeting, flowing the course of time.

�e piece of paper captures the shadow moving from Sulastri’s

hand which writes swi�ly. A row of letters turned into words, words

into phrases that try to con�ne memories into innumerable lines

of sentences. She fails to feel the movement of time. Her body does

not go tired. On that night, she starts with a new leaf of paper.

(Djojopuspito, 1975: 14)

I understand that I belong to more lucky ones. My family was able to put me through a vocational education at the European teacher training college in Surabaya. On the other hand, I was benefited by the Ethical policy of the Dutch colonial government. This policy has shaped new routes and redefined knowledge production processes in the Dutch East Indies. But to me embarrassment is just one of many feelings that emerge for attaining social privileges.

With my husband Sudarmo, we chose to move and fight. We built a wild school. It was a place where we throw the seeds of freedom. Freedom from oppression. Freedom should be the main life force on this land. But how must freedom be positioned in relation to modernity?

Follow my voice... I will take you through some detours through my reveries. I will introduce you to some of my friends here: other mannequins, the paintings, the writings. We are all brought here to give life to a theater of colonialism, a play staged in a museum

42 43structure which was built to enclose the institution’s property claimed on a territory far far away, a land which is now called Indonesia. Who owns the stories of Indonesia? Who owns its history? Who owns the knowledge on Indonesia?

Take a look at the building. It looks like a castle that collects artifacts and archives. I often think whether the youth in my motherland could ever access all of the things that are kept here. Honestly I doubt it. The problem is once again the distance. But this time it has to do with the distance, which is systematically organized, stretched through the logic of exhibiting propriety and safeguarded by the bureaucracy that controls it.

Yesterday afternoon I saw a group of high school students entering this place. They went here as part of their school assignment. I could hear their steps passing through while chattering. Some of them stopped in front of the paintings, the maps, the other mannequins, then they scribed something on their little notebooks. A few halted in front of me. What ran through the minds of these young Dutch people? How much do they know about my motherland that is still referred to as Netherlands East Indies in these premises? How much do they know about VOC – Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie? In our history books, the narratives about Dutch colonial history in Indonesia are full of names of people and places, dates and events. They exist as something that all of us have to memorize, inscribed to our brains, treated as if they were mantras or magical charms. They pretty much shaped the ways Indonesians perceive the Netherlands. I am curious about what kind of history books the students here read. How the Dutch

is described in the colonial era in Indonesia? How is Indonesia being represented in these books?

I am only a teacher in a wild school who does not have the power to change the direction of how history as a subject should be taught in school. Within my own limits, what I can offer through this audio guide is to reveal things that are hidden beneath what seems to be obvious. I want to voice something that could create ripples, big or small; things that could disrupt the gaze of colonial history that I often felt is too flat in this country.

Now, turn your head to the right. Do you see the room next door? That room is full of bizarre objects, things that perhaps you could not find anymore in the place where it came from. They call it a cabinet of curiosities. Let’s walk there; towards the figure with the long silvery hair working behind the desk, his name is Rumphius.1

POINT TWO

STAND ON THE ROOM CALLED “CLOVE AND POWDER”. WALK 25 STEPS TOWARDS THE RUMPHIUS' MANNEQUIN AT THE CORNER OF THE ROOM.

1 Georg Eberhard Rumphius (November 1, 1627 – June 15, 1702) was a German-born botanist em-ployed by the Dutch East India Company in what is now eastern Indonesia, and is best known for his work Herbarium Amboinense produced in the face of severe personal tragedies. In addition to his major contributions to plant systematics, he is also remembered for his skills as an ethnographer and his frequent defense of Ambonese peoples against colonialism.

44 45Rumphius was born in Germany, year 1627. When he was 26 years old, he applied for a job at the VOC. Then he travelled to Java, then moved to Ambon. There he resided until his death. Poor ol’ Rumphius. He is a German scientist who had remarkably collected, named, and categorized thousands of plants and various species of seashells in Eastern Indonesia. Throughout his entire adult life he was obsessed with finishing a compendium of the dizzying variety of tropical life in Ambon.

I felt pity about him because his life was also filled with a series of tragedy. Indeed, if you want to have a respectful place in this museum, you either had to be a big winner in life or had a very tragic fate. If you are only destined to have a mediocre life, you will only become a nameless mannequin such as what happened to me in the past.

So why do you think Rumphius’ figure is exhibited here? One thing, he is visually impaired. By the age of 43, before he was known by the scientific world, Rumphius suffered glaucoma. He was trying to feel the seashell through his hands (fingers). Rumphius named his collection of plants and seashells in Javanese, Hindi, Portuguese, Chinese and Dutch.

Rumphius is a peculiar scientist. His works are a mix of scientific rationalism and the imaginative mind of an adventurer. He brought up things that exist beyond rational knowledge. He gave the seashells very funny names, such as Little Dream Horn, The Prince’s Funeral, Peasant Music and Double Venus Harp. What do you think the name of the seashell on his hands could be?

Rumphius’ gaze is the imaginative gaze of a curious mind. Expeditions, travel to faraway places, exotic sensation and fascination are elements of a vision beyond the real. Aren’t curiosity and fascination things that we all share? In the past we used to call Hollanders as “Corn haired” or “Cat eyed” because most have hairs as blond as a corn and eyes blue as a catʼs. We were fascinated by the physical difference between Dutch people and natives. But when we wrote about this in my husband’s newspaper, the colonial police shut down his business because they felt insulted. But my husband also responded angrily, he said he was only describing what he saw. It is what it is. Unfortunately, in the past only European’s gaze and imagination were allowed to roam freely on our land.

To come to think about it, actually the gaze of Dutch colonials are worse than Rumphius’ who had trouble seeing. Rumphius still made some efforts to ask from native informants about plants and seashells that exist in Ambon. On the contrary, the colonial force tends to turn a blind eye on the realities faced by people who were different to them. Some of them were more interested in creating their own fantasy world as they pleased.

Forgive my grumpiness, but take a look to your right. Look at that huge map and the cannon below it. This map was made thirty years before Hollanders first arrival to Java. They bombed the royal complex of Jayakarta and replaced it with towers in Dutch architectural styles. They built canals and fortifications. The map is a tool to govern space. After occupying the motherland for long enough, the gaze of colonial fascination was replaced by the gaze of colonial knowledge. The kind of gaze that has ferociously scorched

46 47down all other knowledge that had long been existed before.Let’s leave Rumphius alone now and move back to the other room. I will show you a colonial gaze that still prevails in the minds of both Dutch and Indonesian until now.

POINT THREE

WALK SOME 28 STEPS BACK TO THE AREA WHERE SULASTRI IS STANDING, THEN TURN LEFT TO THE AREA LOCATED ACROSS SULASTRI.

SIT ON THE BENCH WHERE YOU WOULD FIND RUMPHIUS’ BOOK ON THE TABLE. THE BOOK IS TIED WITH A CHAIN TO THE TABLE, SO THAT NO ONE CAN STEAL IT.

Look at the paintings that are hanged on the right corner across you. What do you see? What do the pictures remind you of? In those paintings, everything looks beautiful, everything felt so peaceful. So dreamy isn’t it? It’s a repertoire of tropical dream world and fantasy. The same images had driven a generation of European to move to the new colony named East Indies. They painted my motherland as a lush, filled with abundant natural resources and figures of beautiful women. Some of those paintings portray the development of colonial infrastructures – trains and railways, asphalt roads, bicycles, cars, hotels. They are all the necessary infrastructures to ensure comfort lives in the tropical land.

Do Hollanders know that there are a lot of spirits and ghosts living

on the strings of coconut palm trees and inside the overgrowing banana trees? Do they know that the smell of jasmine often brings to me a nostalgic feeling? Or I should not say that because it might give impression that I am not a modern woman. I come to a point where all this natural beauty is nothing more than a mortal existence. What remain are the politics of gaze that people use in perceiving things. And this politics is there to ensure that this gaze continues to operate.

Nineteenth century panoramic paintings of Indies landscapes thus

both utilized and reproduced the instruments of colonization,

sharpening the skills of map-makers, surveyors, and navigators

while serving as cultural tools of conquest in themselves, narrating

a particular story of Dutch expansion that claimed new lands while

depicting the process as uncontested. Nowhere is the visual discourse

of naturalizing Dutch conquest more evident than in genre known

as mooi indie 2 (beautiful Indies) landscapes, a staple product

of nineteenth-century Dutch colonial painting from the Indies, (Protschky 2011: 82-83).

�e mountain, the coconut palm, and the sawah have become the

Trinity (trimurti) for these painters... And if a painter is audacious

enough to paint subjects other than the Trinity, and attempts to sell

such paintings at the galleries here, then a dealer will say: “Dat is niet

voor ons, meneer.” (�is is not for us, sir). Meaning: “Dat is niet voor

2 �e term Mooi Indie (Dutch for “Beautiful Indies”) was originally coined as the title of 11 repro-ductions of Du Chattel’s watercolor paintings which depicted the scene of East Indies published in Amsterdam in 1930. �e term became famous in 1939 a�er S. Sudjojono used it to mock the painters that merely depict all pretty things about Indies.

48 49de toeristen of de gepensionnerde [sic] Hollanders, meneer.” (�is

is not for the tourists or the retired Dutch [orang Belanda], sir). And

such painter, if he wishes not to be consumed by tuberculosis, may be

better o� becoming a teacher or looking for a job as a statistical clerk...

(Sudjojono 2000, in Protschky 2011, 83).3

That is why I always look at the mooi indie panting with a little suspicion. It stops being something that can provide a critical view of its surrounding. The ideal representation of my homeland hides so many problematic things. It was used to heighten the sense of control over space and to shape the vision of European rule in the colonized land. But at the same time I understand that the preservation of colonial gaze occurs in many ways. I remember how my own students also reproduce these picturesque images. Every time I asked them to draw something, my students always make the same picture: one or two mountains, with a sun perched over the horizon, a winding road passing through the yellowish paddy fields and vanishing behind the horizon. Mooi indie as a politics of colonial gaze trickles down, transmitting way through different generations that came after it.

Sometimes a thought crossed my mind, maybe it’s useless to ask my students to stop drawing the same landscape: the mountain, the sun and the paddy fields, again and again. What matters more to me is how to create dialogue so that we can begin to undo this colonial gaze. What matters to me is how to bring back other

3 Susie Protschky, Images of the Tropics: Environment and Visual Culture in Colonial Indonesia, 2011.

things that were pushed aside or concealed underneath this pretty landscape. But what kind of things that are actually being erased? This question can be answered by knowing first the right context.

(Book opening sound) Now please flip to the first page of Rumphiusʼ book which is chained to the table. What do you see? Do you also see what I see? Yes, that’s what I mean, the picture of the small picture of a male genital. Two weeks ago I saw a young woman scribbling something inside the book. Maybe she was just messing around. Turn to your back and see the markings on the floor, do you see the blue dots there in the shape of dog paw prints? Maybe someone else also did it as a prank. But it was seemingly much harder to get away with the act of painting the footprints of a dog on the museum floor. Can you imagine what one had to do so that he or she could smuggle in a can of paint without being seen by the museum securities?

These are all of course plain vandalism. But they also gave me an idea on how to disrupt the logic in which the objects are arranged here. One of the main problems in the discourse of colonial history in the Netherlands is the lack of attempts in addressing them through everyday conversations. I think what we can do is to actually make these traces of colonial history more visible.

群島資料庫05：KUNCI文化研究中心

作者 | KUNCI Cultural Studies Center、陳湘汶主編 | 鄭文琦翻譯 | 鄭文琦、吳怡伶設計 | 羅仕東校稿 | 謝鎮逸、吳伯山出版單位 | 數位荒原／財團法人數位藝術基金會出版日期 | 2018年3月電話 | +886-2-27789268　網站 | www.heath.tw

《數位荒原》駐站暨群島資料庫計劃（第一年）

主辦單位 | 數位荒原／財團法人數位藝術基金會協辦單位 | 在地實驗、打開-當代藝術工作站觀察團成員 | 陳湘汶、侯昱寬、賴英泰《群島資料庫05》由國家文化藝術基金會贊助

NUSANTARA ARCHIVE 05: KUNCI Cultural Studies Center

Contributor: KUNCI Cultural Studies Center, Chen Hsiang-WenEditor: Rikey Tenn Bun-kiTranslator: Rikey Tenn Bun-ki, Zoey WuDesigner: Lo Shih-TungReviser: Yizai Seah, Wu Po-ShanPublisher: No Man’s Land / Digital Art FoundationPrinted in Taipei, 2018, MarTel: +886-2-27789268 Website: www.heath.tw

NML Residency & Nusantara Archive Project, The 1st Year

Organizer: No Man’s Land / Digital Art FoundationCo-organizer: ET@T, Open-Contemporary Art CenterObservation Team: Chen Hsiang-Wen, Ho Yu-Kuan, Lai Ying-TaiNusantara Archive 05 is supported by National Culture and Arts Foundation

THIS WORK IS LICENSED UNDER THE CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBI-TION-NONCOMMERCIAL 4.0 INTERNATIONAL (CC BY-NC 4.0)