“when I doubt my insanity, I think around in a circle and walk about home.”
Following on Act 1, the original spoken-word poetry in Act 2: When I Doubt My Insanity grew out of two characters in “1001 Martian Homes”, Wulia’s solo project at the Indonesian Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale. In a 2- channel geolocated sound installation, site-specific in Venice, Tedjabayu and Hersri Setiawan were amongst the political prisoners of Buru Island, Indonesia, indefinitely detained without trial during the Suharto government.
During internment and in between tortures, Tedjabayu tidily wrote down any general knowledge he could recall, to retain his sanity. Hersri, who spent a long period in the Netherlands after his release, used to covertly buried his notebooks under a banana tree because in his camp writing was banned. The sound installation is geolocated around a tree in Venice as a tribute to Hersri’s memory, and mixes original poetry with recordings of Tedjabayu’s recitation of seemingly random words. These words – which was one of the ways Tedjabayu rechecks his sanity every day during the imprisonment –- originated from the spines of a Dutch encyclopaedia series he recollect from his childhood.
This work, placed in Campo del Ghetto Nuovo in Venice – the world’s first Jewish ghetto – needs to be activated by at least two people, one staying near the trunk of a tree, and the other(s) walking around it, bringing memories to live.
The work is available via:
http://www.sonicsoundings.com