National Museum
Does she seem familiar to you? You might have passed her doppelganger about 10 minutes away from here. Nadiah took her here, to this museum, on this occasion, to boldly remind us that women like her did move, and that their movement reverberates in our lives today. Have you ever thought of who she is? Or who is she representing?
Located in a roundabout that we call Taman Tugu Tani, there’s the monument commissioned by Sukarno to a Russian sculptor duo. Curiously, the monuments that Onejoon researched upon, miniaturized, and problematized, are located in various African countries. Since 1970s, these sculptures of these monuments have been made by an artist studio in North Korea. To a certain extent, we might say that all these national monuments look the same, and somewhat feel the same.
Song Ta’s readaptation of the Chinese national anthem also feels familiar. Its lyrics were famously restored and accepted as the official version of the anthem in 1982 after a shift in values during the tumultuous decades prior. It may resonate to many of you as earlier this year there were long debates about the fact that the Indonesian national hymn sung in school and official occasions was apparently never in its full version.
