Screaming out colonial wounds and moving toward decolonial healing: Papuan art in the Biennale Jogja Equator #6 (Indonesia meets Oceania)

Widya Rafifa Salsabila, Evi Lina Sutrisno, M.A., Ph.D.

2024 | Skripsi | ILMU PEMERINTAHAN

This article discusses Biennale Jogja Equator #6 2021: Indonesia meets Oceania, especially the participating art practices concerning Papuan issues. This article investigates how anticolonial aesthetics tackle dominant knowledge production of and in coloniality. These artistic practices call for a closer reading of the overarching duration of coloniality. They reject to comply with decolonisation solely as a particular historical event, furthermore exposing the continuation of colonial violence—ecocide, racism, and femicide against Papuans—operated by a postcolonial entity. Moreover, they also attempt to cultivate decolonial healing while inviting a broader public to nurture empathy and participate in intersectional solidarity. Through the exploration of the narratives and the poetics in those works, this article argues that anticolonial aesthetic practices are fertile ground to foster alternative futures of decoloniality.

This article discusses Biennale Jogja Equator #6 2021: Indonesia meets Oceania, especially the participating art practices concerning Papuan issues. This article investigates how anticolonial aesthetics tackle dominant knowledge production of and in coloniality. These artistic practices call for a closer reading of the overarching duration of coloniality. They reject to comply with decolonisation solely as a particular historical event, furthermore exposing the continuation of colonial violence—ecocide, racism, and femicide against Papuans—operated by a postcolonial entity. Moreover, they also attempt to cultivate decolonial healing while inviting a broader public to nurture empathy and participate in intersectional solidarity. Through the exploration of the narratives and the poetics in those works, this article argues that anticolonial aesthetic practices are fertile ground to foster alternative futures of decoloniality.

Kata Kunci : Papuan art, anticolonial aesthetics, decolonial art, Global South biennials, Biennale Jogja Equator