Hekh hosted the screening of Sulawesi, a film from the project History-Memory- Commemoration followed by a discussion with the filmmakers, on 13th September, 2026.
History, Memory, Commemoration, is a project that explores how a shared colonial history is remembered, experienced and passed on to future generations. The project, realised and created by Iswanto Hartono, Mirwan Andan and Hans van Houwelingen, is planned to have eight films, each recorded at specific locations in Indonesia and the Netherlands.
Recorded in Makassar, Maros, Barru, Pare-Pare and Palopo, SULAWESI is the third work in the series, following after JAVA and ACEH. This work shows how the impact of the violence of 1946/47 in South Sulawesi when Captain Raymond Westerling and his Special Forces launched a violent campaign to suppress the Indonesian independence movement in that area. Thousands were killed in what became one of the most brutal episodes of the colonial war. How does the memory of this violence persist today? And how do centuries-old local cultures endure despite such powerful external forces?
Images from the screening
Images from the screening
Images from the screening
Images from the discussion post the discussion with Mirwan Andan, Iswanto Hartono, and Hans van Houwelingen.
The screening program is the first in a long term collaboration planned between Hekh in India and several collectives and organisations in Indonesia including Musyawarah Arsip, Riwanua, History-Memory-Commemoration.
Mirwan Andan is a cultural worker, part of ruangrupa, a collective based in Jakarta and part of the artistic team of documenta fifteen a.k.a Lumbung I (Kassel, 2022). In Makassar, he co-initiated and co-founded RIWANUA, Musyawarah Arsip, and Koneksi Tamalanrea as platforms for art and cultural advancement in the eastern part of Indonesia and beyond. From 2019 – now, he is part the project History-Memory-Commemoration that record specific locations in Indonesia and the Netherlands that relate to shared colonial history.
Hans van Houwelingen (1957) lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin. His work is manifested in the form of exhibitions, interventions, projects in public space, films, lectures and publications, in which he investigates and reflects on the relations between art, culture and politics. His films hey paarth, what about the atom bomb? and In Between Blue Waves and Green Corridors were recently presented at Documenta 15.
Iswanto Hartono (born 1972 in Purworejo, Central Java, Indonesia) is an artist, curator, architect and exhibition designer whose work explores the intersection of spatial practice, ecology and activism. He has taught at several leading global institutions and is currently pursuing a practice-based PhD at CREAM, University of Westminster, London. He is a part of ruangrupa, an artist collective based in Jakarta. Also part of Musyawarah Arsip, an independent platform initiated to identify, store, care for, activate and present archives to the public in various programs and media, based in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.