In this episode, Dr. Rachel Gillett is joined by Dr. Grace Leksana and artist Elia Nurvista. They discuss Elia Nurvista's artwork, now on display at the Wereldmuseum in Amsterdam, and ask how it shows the impact of colonialism. The conversation, like the artwork, explores themes of food, gender, and artistic techniques. Elia's work invites us to think about how and why certain things of colonial and post-colonial Indonesia are remembered (or not.) This episode, brings Elia's art into conversation with Grace Leksana's research, and their rich discussion opened up insights into how colonialism has been remembered in Indonesia.
Dr. Grace Leksana is an Assistant Professor in Indonesian history in the Cultural History section of Utrecht University. Trained as an Indonesian social historian with interdisciplinary background, her works involved memory studies, (epistemic) violence & genocide, histories of the Left, decolonization, and specific approach of micro history. Her most recent publication is: Memory culture of the anti Leftist violence in Indonesia: Embedded Remembering (Amsterdam University Press, 2023).
You can find her book here: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463723565/memory-culture-of-the-anti-leftist-violence-in-indonesia
Elia Nurvista is an artist who explores a wide range of art mediums with an interdisciplinary approach and often intersects with politics of food. Through food, she intends to scrutinize power, social, and economic inequality in this world. Using several mediums from workshop, study group, publication, site specific, performance, video and art installations, she explores the social implications of the food system to critically address the wider issues such as ecology, gender, class and geopolitics.
You can check out her art at the website here: https://elianurvista.com/
Also, her art at the exhibition at the Wereldmuseum: https://amsterdam.wereldmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/exhibitions/imprints
If you are interested in this subject, we recommend you check out: 12. What is the Black Atlantic? By Rachel Gillett (youtube.com)
- Re-presenting Europe
ABOUT:
Brought to you by the UGlobe Decolonisation Group
Hosted by Dr. Rachel Gillet
Co-hosted by Libby Davis
Sound by Libby Davis
Special thanks to our guests Dr. Grace Leksana and Elia Nurvista
