KIDUNG/LAMENT

(2019) 3 channel video, stereo sound, 10:58mins








Kidung focuses on the spectral trace of Bali’s histories of political violence and how this buried past continues to haunt present topographies. In response to an unacknowledged mass grave site from Indonesia’s 1965-66 genocide, the artist frames a video performance by the poet and performance artist, Cok Sawitri, who chants lament for the missing dead. The video draws visibility to points of erasure in the landscape, where histories of violence register as gaps, fragments and present absences.

CREDITS
Director/Editor: Leyla Stevens
Performer: Cok Sawitri
Production Assistance: Wayan Martino
Camera Operator: Wayan Martino & Leyla Stevens
Camera Assistance: Medy Mahasena
Audio Mastering: Tim Bruniges

LINK TO EXHIBITION CATALOGUE WRITTEN BY ALIA SWASTIKA

Installation View: Their Sea is Always Hungry (2019), UTS ART, Photo: Zan WimberleyDua Dunia (2021), curated by Rachel Ciesla, PS Art Space/Perth Festival, Photo: Robert Frith;  One song is very much like another, and the boat is always from afar (2021), Guangdong Times Museum.