The emptiness of the word 'sorry'

By Sibylle Kaczorek

DARWIN — On June 2, artist Dadang Christanto's exhibition titled
“Reconciliation” was opened with a powerful performance and installation.

Christanto, who was born in Indonesia in the late 1950s, uses simple
materials (pieces of red wool) and everyday scenes (a bed, a table and
chairs) to symbolise the penetration of injustice and blood into our personal
space and the public sphere.

The opening performance by Dadang and his co-artists was a wordless
presentation of movement and human sound leaving “blood” on the walls and
the hands, and in the mouth — an invasion of violence and death into our
senses. The combination of means and technique powerfully exposed the subject
matter and kept the audience captive, unable to escape the message. That
message is the need for justice in the process of reconciliation.

James Bennett, curator of South East Asia Pacific Arts at the Museum
and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, outlined the political background
to Dadang's work. He reminded the large audience about the brutal colonisation
of the Asia Pacific region and that Australia is the remaining colonial
power, apart from the “resurgence attempt of Portugal in East Timor”. He
described Indonesia's bloody history and the massacre in 1965-66 of anyone
who was vaguely identified as communist.

Bennett referred to Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid's recent
apology to Pramoedya Ananta Toer, the famous novelist, former member of
the Indonesian Communist Party and now a member of the People's Democratic
Party. Pramoedya refused to accept Wahid's apology, said Bennett, and demanded
an apology from the parliament instead.

This example highlighted Dadang's message, which challenges the emptiness
of the word “sorry”. Reconciliation, says Dadang, is about “the responsibility
to expose a history of lies and to refuse a life of hypocrisy and injustices”.

Dadang Christanto's “Reconciliation” continues until June 24 at 24HR
Art, Parap.

From GLW issue 409