Join the presentation Porosity of Parabels by Ratu R. Saraswati upcoming Friday at HMK! Walk-in from 4pm and presentation starts at 5pm.

Porosity of Parables, is a research project by Ratu Rizkitasari Saraswati (Saras), where she observes stories and parables which inhibit our collective consciousness and possess a certain morality. Having grown up with parables, she has always gravitated towards their power to teach us life lessons such as morality. They can also remind us as human beings to pursue the virtuous path, as told through the medium of intriguing stories full of metaphors. In this project, she focuses on reflecting on the colonial history between the Netherlands and Indonesia through parables and provides an opportunity to recognize the dark side of history. During her fellowship residency at HMK, she was inspired by the stories surrounding bridges that she encountered by chance, the coral stones in her hometown of Jakarta and conversations with various people she met in Hoorn during her residency. 

Saras researched the coral stones that were used to build the old city of Batavia. These stones are recorded in Willem Bontekoe's famous journal (1618-1625). Bontekoe was a captain of the East India Company (VOC) and a Hoorn native. In June, Saras visited Indonesia to explore the remains of Kasteel Batavia, together with local archaeologist Candrian Attahiyyat. 

The construction of this fort was directed by J.P. Coen, who also orchestrated the Banda massacre. Prior to her migration to the Netherlands in 2020, she did not know that there was a statue of him in his hometown of Hoorn, still standing on its pedestal with the support of many local citizens. Becoming aware of its existence and the heated debates surrounding the initiative to take down and relocate the monument,  she dived into the connections between this figure, the colonial VOC capital he envisioned, and her hometown that grew out of it. 

Saras's project combines these narratives with the coral stones of Jakarta and a folktale of Hoorn, inviting us to reflect on the past connections between the Netherlands and Indonesia and inspiring us to recognize and examine the history, colonial narratives and stories behind those connections. To conclude her residency at HMK she has created an audiovisual performance that shapes this chapter of her research so far. She uses the various elements in the stories as symbols and metaphors to connect the stories to colonial history. These connections are made through an exploration of personal and communal experiences, inviting us to recognize these experiences and relish the opportunity to share our resilience to the pain from history. After her residency she will continue her research and the multiple stories that emerge will be collected into a publication.

Ratu Rizkitasari Saraswati, (1990) studied at the Faculty of Art and Design's Institut Teknologi Bandung in 2013, and was artist in residence at Sàn Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 2015 and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam in 2020-2022, where she published a collection of narratives titled Route of Flowers. In 2022, she participated in the performance festival Temu Seni Performans Indonesia Bertutur in South Sulawesi, which inspired her to write Parable of the Tongue. In late 2022, this collection, along with other stories based on her interactions in the Molenwijk neighbourhood during her residency at Framer Framed, was compiled into A Rising Flower Makes a Garden. In summer 2023, Saras received a stipend grant from the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst. She is now working on her second publication exploring the concept of risalah, with the support of an artist's publication grant from Stichting Stokroos. 

Acknowledgments

Hotel Maria Kapel

Patar Pribadi

Candrian Attahiyyat

Angga Cipta

Aziz Aminudin

Yuda

Marisella de Cuba

Julian Wijnstein

Arnoud Schaake

Stichting Plaatsmaken

Astrid Nobel

Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst

Stichting Stokroos