Screening "Histoire - Mémoire - Commémoration / JAVA"

The Netherlands Institute in Morocco (NIMAR) and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Morocco, the Moroccan Cinematheque and RIWANUA cultural center  are pleased to invite you to a cultural evening at Cinéma 7éme Art for an exclusive screening of the documentary "History - Memory - Commemoration / JAVA" in the presence of the directors Hans van Houwelingen and Mirwan Andan, on Monday, February 26, 2024, at Cinéma 7éme Art at 6:00 PM.

 History - Memory - Commemoration / JAVA

Synopsis:

The project History - Memory - Commemoration is a long-term collaboration between Dutch artist Hans van Houwelingen and Iswanto Hartono and Mirwan Andan, of the Indonesian artists' collective Ruangrupa. Together they are making seven films about specific locations in relation to the colonial history of the Netherlands and Indonesia: Java, Aceh, Nias, the Netherlands, Moluccas, Sulawesi and Papua. JAVA is the first film in the series, recorded in Jakarta. What influence do location, family, politics, religion, education, historiography and fashion have on how history is remembered? How is it passed on to future generations? What history is commemorated? This film series sets aside a one-sided view and shows the wide variety of significances within one shared colonial history.

Leitmotif in this project are the Van Heutsz monument in Amsterdam, renamed as the Indië-Nederland monument, and the Van Heutsz monument in Jakarta, demolished in 1953. After the independence of Indonesia, president Sukarno ordered almost all colonial statues to be demolished and streets to be renamed. Looking forward, the past had to be quickly forgotten. In the Netherlands, colonial memorials were preserved and became controversial. What does the presence or absence of these monuments mean? How do people commemorate in the absence of memorials or in the presence of controversial statues? Perhaps it's time to change the traditional protocols of commemoration? 

Hans van Houwelingen (born 1957) lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin. He studied at the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. His work is expressed in exhibitions, interventions, public space projects, films, lectures and publications, in which he investigates and reflects on the relationship between art, culture, and politics. His films “Hey paarth, what about the atom bomb?” and “In Between Blue Waves and Green Corridors” were recently presented at Documenta 15. Van Houwelingen regularly publishes in newspapers and magazines, including NRC and Het Parool.

Mirwan Andan was born and raised in Watampone, South Sulawesi. From 1993 to 1999, he studied at the Islamic boarding school in Watampone and in Makassar. From 1999–2004, he enrolled at the Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar, majoring in French Literature. Early 2005, he moved to Jakarta and in 2012 graduated from Political Science, focusing Comparative Politics in the Universitas Indonesia, while working in ruangrupa as a researcher and developer since 2007. His writing appears in journal and media, including journal of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (2011), Kompas (2013). In 2013, he conducted research on Indonesian cultural speech, compiled and published it as Imajinasi Kebudayaan, Cultural Imajination. In 2015, Mirwan Andan is the researcher for Jakarta Biennale 2015. He now lives in two cities, back and forth, Makassar and Jakarta, while preparing a project initiative in Makassar with his fellow young researchers, artists, and cultural activists.