Flag Project Concept

With my background as an Indonesian brought up in a hybrid culture, Islam that had assimilated with previous cultures: animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, I do not find significant difficulties to interact with other cultures or faiths. The experience of my last 34 years living as a nomad, moving to various places and countries, meeting various races of mankind, has obliged me to respect differences, be tolerant and appreciate the different ways and choices that other people make. To me, cultural and faith differences are a wealth that must be guarded and developed for the continuation of life, peace and humanity.

So, with this life style and working pattern, in the recent years, to be precise since 2006, I have been working on a long term work titled the “Flag Project”.

The third version of the Flag Project called “Nusantara Flag Project” started in 2018. In this project all the keywords on the flags are coming from tribes in Indonesia archipelago, has been performed with community from Yogyakarta and Bali. The work with the communities not only limited to performance art – also including activities dealing with environmental challenges like: organic garden, managing garbage and re-cycle, managing the water & alternative energy.

The colorful flags that is being produced which symbolize diversity, each has it's own "key word" taken from the dialogue and discussion with communities. It is showing what is the main concern of each communities like: Freedom, Love, Heart, Courage, Spirit, Culture, Capital, Earth, Water, Air, Food, Resistance, Wisdom, Happiness, Bonding, Intuition, Community, Hand in Hand. The key-words are written in various languages and script. And those flags are made in a village in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) by a group of Moslem woman seamstresses.

This community-based art project is a sustainable art work that I designed with the intention and the goals of studying and developing collective creativity.

The focus of this activity is to create and maintain a network of communities involved in this project to enable the exchange of ideas and experiences, or for further development in the form of collaborations. Dealing with issues of environmental, cultural, and social-political conflict.

It has been staged in Yogyakarta (Indonesia), Ngawi – East Java (Indonesia), Bali (Indonesia), Sydney (Australia), Melbourne (Australia), Shenzhen (China), Nagano (Japan), Rostock, Passau, Berlin (Germany), Ghent (Belgia), Dumaguette (The Phillipines), Sharjah (Uni Arab Emirate), Singapore, Bangkok (Thailand), and Tibet.