Transcript

I call myself a lucky one
to be able to be part
of this collective spirit,
witnessing changes
that are bringing the world into the future,
an unknown area we shall discover together. 

Are you coming with me?

All I can contribute
is this body. 

This body is a shelter
for a million of spirits of our ancestors—
who see the path set out before us
with loving peace and care
with sadness and loss
along the endless thread
of our uncertain future. 

And I shall be sorrowed,
remembering them being displayed in a human zoo
by people who lived with a colonial mind. 

These same colonial minds make us strangers to ourselves,
forced to witness ourselves as others,
conditioned and classified by colours that divide:
white and blue,
black and yellow,
red and green:
borders, and flags. 

This body, is indeed a shelter,
of my feminine treasures,
no one else will determine
to whom it shall belong,
to what it shall become
to where it shall live. 

This body is a shelter,
of networking, of systems,
which give a complete life
and responsibilities
beyond culture, classes, and language. 

This body is a shelter,
that provides tools for breathing,
for as long as I breathe, I shall not stop hoping
to have enough food for the starving,
enough education for all who cannot afford it,
enough beds for the homeless,
for all workers to be paid equally for their skills
and have the right of freedom. 

This body is not to be sheltered from dangers—
but to be fearless in facing them. 

What can the past give
to a stranger in this shelter?
Something
in order to be accepted
as an equal being,
regardless of gender,
skin colour,
and belief? 

I am not a dreamer,
but someone whose pace is patience for the coming transformation. 

I want to ask you a favour:
Be actively part
of our collective spirits
and awareness.
Love what is given to us:
the energy, the nature, and the soul.

“This body is a shelter, / of networking, of systems, / which give a complete life / and responsibilities / beyond culture, classes, and language.”

Punctuated by gasps, inhalations, whispers, and nonverbal vocalizations, performance artist Melati Suryodarmo bridges the connections between her own body and the social bodies that sustain us. In a poem that probes the boundaries of oration and performance, Suryodarmo shows how we might find empowerment within our own bodies as the basis for collective transformation.

Melati Suryodarmo (born 1969, Solo, Indonesia) graduated from the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunscheweig, Germany. Her practice is informed by Butoh, dance and history, among other things. Her work is the result of ongoing research in the movements of the body and its relationship to the self and the world. These are translated into photography, dance choreography, video, and live performances. Suryodarmo is interested in the psychological and physical agitations that may be from the self or the world but somehow result in lasting change on the individual. The body is the home for memories and the self, rather than the individual itself, and the body’s system.

Suryodarmo has presented her work in locations all over the world, including Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland; MMCA, Gwacheon, South Korea; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Para Site, Hong Kong; QAGOMA, Australia; and the Singapore Art Museum. Festivals include 5th Guangzhou Triennale (2015); Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale (2009); and Manifesta 7 (2008).

Since 2007, Suryodarmo has been organizing PALA and Undisclosed Territory, both annual performance art festivals, in Solo, Indonesia. In 2012, she founded “Studio Plesungan”, an art space for performance artists. In 2017, she served as Artistic Director for the 17th Jakarta Biennale.

ASL Interpretation