Yogyakarta, 30 June 2026 – The exhibition space at the Gelanggang Inovasi dan Kreativitas (GIK) at Universitas Gadjah Mada has been transformed into a space for reflection. The phrase “Archivepelago” is more than just the name of an exhibition. It’s a cultural message from a maestro. Garin Nugroho. This exhibition shows Garin’s personal memories. It also invites the public to explore parts of Indonesian cinema and culture that are often forgotten. This exhibition is a chance to think about how our visual identity is formed, kept, or even forgotten over time.
The word Archivepelago is a combination of the words archipelago and archive. It shows that Indonesia, with its thousands of islands, is like a huge ocean of archives that is sometimes divided into smaller parts. Garin’s work shows us these memories of the islands. As a director who started his career in the late New Order era and is still working now, his old work shows the big changes that have happened in society, politics and art in the country over the past 40 years.
Upon entering the GIK UGM exhibition space, visitors are not confronted with a display of inanimate objects arranged in a rigid and sterile manner. Instead, the exhibition’s layout and flow effectively present the archive as a dynamic entity. The audience is invited to peruse draft film scripts whose handwriting still bears the marks of aesthetic negotiation, along with old, yellowing newspaper clippings, rolls of celluloid film, and intimate personal correspondence.
From the perspective of art sociology, this exhibition is a powerful institutional critique. Garin is deliberately exposing his creative process to the public. It is evident that artistic creations are the product of extensive collective labour, often characterised by a significant degree of physical and mental exertion. This assertion is substantiated by a comprehensive examination of the visual research and production notes of seminal films such as Daun di Atas Bantal (1998) and Kucumbu Tubuh Indahku (2018). The exhibition under scrutiny herein demonstrates that artistic works are invariably the result of protracted, collective, and often arduous cultural endeavours. It is evident that there are tensions between power and authority, as well as negotiations with censorship institutions. Furthermore, clashes of economic realities are clearly recorded behind a sheet of production memo paper. The archives demonstrate that aesthetic values are not generated in isolation, but rather are intricately interwoven with the material and social foundations of their respective eras.
A particularly enthralling facet of the exhibition is a multimedia installation that juxtaposes fragments of past documentary videos with the contemporary Indonesian landscape. In this context, Garin endeavours to unearth memories of the past, resurfacing what has been deliberately erased or obscured by formal history. For academics and art enthusiasts, this exhibition space functions as a theoretical laboratory in concrete form.
In the hands of Garin, archives assume the role of a pivotal instrument in the process of decolonising perspectives. He challenges the hegemony of the ruling class’ historical narrative by presenting marginalised voices that are often considered “other”: street children in Yogyakarta, gender identity struggles in remote villages, and local mysticism intertwined with modernity. Consequently, we are compelled to evolve from mere passive visual consumers to critical appreciators. The exhibition provokes fundamental questions concerning the nature of art and its role in society. The question thus arises as to the entities or individuals who exercise control over the historical narrative. The question must therefore be posed: whose memory is being celebrated on this day? By displaying these authentic documents, Archivepelago exposes the manner in which power operates in determining what is worthy of being remembered and what must be forgotten.
The selection of GIK UGM as the presentation space for Archivepelago provides a powerful contextualization of the space. GIK, an innovation centre that brings together science, technology and art, has been successful in conveying Garin’s contextual message. The exhibition in question offers a marked ideological contrast to the contemporary era. In an era where the capacity of human memory has been reduced to a matter of ten seconds or less in the context of social media, Archivepelago pays tribute to the depth and thoroughness of research, as well as the significance of the preservation of material records. Garin’s argument demonstrates that, in order to move into the future on a solid footing, a nation must have the courage to look back and re-examine the debris and fractures of its past. The prevailing perception of archives has undergone a transformation, no longer regarded as melancholy piles of worn-out paper, but rather as an active compass for reading the direction of the times.
It is evident that Garin Nugroho’s Archivepelago at GIK UGM constitutes a pivotal cultural occurrence within the contemporary art landscape. This exhibition has evolved beyond the confines of the filmmaker’s personal perspective, metamorphosing into a forum for public discourse that fosters rational thinking, political consciousness, and aesthetic sensitivity. In this paper, the author sets out the thesis that, through Archivepelago, Garin has rekindled a crucial beacon to guide us on how to preserve memory.
The art, design, and media criticism lectures also contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the following points:
- SDG 4 (Quality Education), art appreciation as part of knowledge, criticism, and awareness of problem analysis. (GM, IH)
