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 A Pond is the Reverse of an Island
@ Biennale Jogja XVI, Roots <> Routes

‘A Pond is the Reverse of an Island’* member artists and organisers are: 

Anang Saptoto, Badan Kajian Pertanahan, Bakudapan Food Study Group, Fajar Riyanto, Mumtaz Khan Chopan, Sanne Oorthuizen and Alec Steadman (Bodies of Power / Power for Bodies), M. Sigit Budi Santoso and Rifandi Nugroho (Kelompok Kurator Kampung), Timbil Budiarto (Lifepatch - citizen initiative for art, science and technology).

 

The exhibition at Biennale Jogja also includes contributions by:

Asadullah Amiri, Atifa Azizi, Write Bariirah, Morteza Haidari, Elina Mark, Nasrin Mohsini, Nori, Zico E. Pestalozzi, Hassan Ramazan Rateq, Bibi Sharifah and Warsan Weedhsan.

'A Pond is the Reverse of an Island'  is a collective platform working in solidarity with the Kalideres refugee camp in Jakarta, and refugees across Indonesia. 'A Pond...' brings artists and collectives together with activists, lawyers, community organisers and the refugee community, developing artistic strategies to “act together”; directly supporting the daily needs of those living in the Kalideres camp through community activities, fundraising platforms and alternative infrastructures, as well as “think together”; making space to speculate about alternative futures of migration and citizenship. 'A Pond...'’s activities, which are taking place outside of this exhibition space, began in early 2020.

For our participation in the 'Roots Routes' exhibition, 'A Pond…' is using the Biennial platform to support the Kalideres refugee community and amplify the struggle of refugees in Indonesia. 

How you can support

Some works in the exhibtion at Biennle Jogja contain fundraising elements that can be purchased onsite; you can buy yummy Afghani flatbread baked in a Tannoor oven as artwork (by Timbil and Mumtaz); buy a zine with interviews and initial research centring on food (by Bakudapan); or you can ‘pay to play’ a special arcade game (by Fajar).

All of the money we raise during and after this exhibition will offer basic support to members of the Kalideres refugee community to run a school for the 30+ children who live in the camp and who are unable to attend school otherwise. Aside from these three projects,

 

You can also give a donation HERE to support the school fund. Any amount means a lot!

 

In thanks and solidarity,

A Pond is the Reverse of an Island* members

 

* Our name, ‘A Pond is the Reverse of an Island’, was developed by artist Malak Helmy (b. 1982, Alexandria, Egypt). With many utopias in literature being set on islands, Malak speculates about the possibility of imagining new societies not on an isolated, sea-locked mass of land, but as a well-developed ecosystem: a pond.

A Pond is the Reverse of an Island
HOME: Who We Are

 

A solidarity fund for refugees in Jakarta, Indonesia during the corona pandemic

As many of us stay at home and self-isolate, we want to ask your support for those who do not have their own home and who are most vulnerable. In particular, we ask for your donations to support the basic needs of a community of more than 230 refugees living in tents in an abandoned building in Kalideres, Jakarta, Indonesia. This community relies entirely on donations for their basic needs and in this time of crisis, when the rest of the city is in lockdown, it has become even harder for them to survive.

 

In exchange, we have made a digital colouring book for children by Anang Saptoto, which you can download for free above. The story is based on the reality faced by the refugee community in Kalideres and has been developed as a tool for home schooling, to be shared with families around the world who are staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic. It is available in English, Indonesian and Farsi. The book also includes a fact sheet for parents and guardians with information on the situation of refugees in Indonesia.

 

We are sharing the e-book for free, but we hope it will encourage you to make a donation so the community in Kalideres can buy food, electricity, sanitary products and basic health care, as well as materials to make their own reusable sanitary pads and filtration units that will provide clean drinking water. Every little bit helps.

Thank you so much for your support and solidarity!
 

Alec Steadman, Anang Saptoto, Mumtaz Khan Chopan, Sanne Oorthuizen

 

P.S. 

We’d love to receive images of you and your family using the colouring book to share in the gallery section of this website, and on our instagram account. If you’d like to share a photo please contact us, or tag  on instagram:

 

@bodies_of_power

#supportkalideres

Donate Here

We accept donations via our GoFundMe and Paypal accounts,

or via bank transfer to our BCA (Bank Central Asia) account. 

100% of donations will go directly to supporting the

refugee community in Kalideres. We welcome

donations of any amount.

Every little bit helps!

HOME: Get Involved

Rekening BCA (IDR)

Follow the link to our GoFundMe page to make a donation in € Euros.

Account Number: 4451807760

Name: Grace Samboh

Bank: BCA

Branch: KCP Katamso, Yogyakarta

Please use the cashtag: $pengungsikalideres

Follow the link to our Paypal page.

Background

Who We Are 

This fundraising platform is a collaborative initiative developed by Alec Steadman, Anang Spatoto, Mumtaz Khan Chopan and Sanne Oorthuizen, together with the refugee community in Kalideres.

 

It is connected to 'A Pond is the Reverse of an Island', an art project that will think and act together with refugee and informal kampung communities in Jakarta as part of Bodies of Power/Power for Bodies, later in 2020/2021, after the pandemic restrictions ease.

Special thanks to Brigitta Isabella for bahasa Indoneisa translation and story editing.

Anang Saptoto is an artist, designer and activist living in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. His collaborative practice focuses on ecology and social change. He is co-director of the collective MES 56 and is active in various other solidarity networks.

anangsaptotoworks.wordpress.com

connectingdesignstudio.wordpress.com

Mumtaz Khan Chopan is an artist. His painting and photography practice is strongly informed by his personal life. In 2013, Mumtaz was forced to flee his home country of Afghanistan due to war and discrimination. He has been living in Yogyakarta, Indonesia ever since.

Bodies of Power/Power for Bodies is an independent curatorial platform, initiated in 2018 by Sanne Oorthuizen and Alec Steadman, that explores the social role and political agency of cultural practice. ‘Bodies of Power/Power for Bodies’ focuses on artists and collectives from Indonesia and abroad who work directly with communities through various forms of DIY civic action. 

What we are fundraising for? 

These are some of the provisions your donation would help support:

€690 / £600: Food for the community for one day (based on IDR 50,000/€3,- per person)

€300 / £260: Groundwater for one month (non-drinkable)

€240 / £210: Electricity for one month

€180 / £155: Soap, toothpaste and personal hygiene products for the entire community for 1 month

€27 / £24: One water filtration kit for clean drinking water (our target is to provide ten kits)

Refugees in Indonesia (Download fact-sheet here)

Refugees in Indonesia
There are more than 14,000* refugees currently in Indonesia. They come from 45 countries, but nearly half are from Afghanistan*. As Indonesia is not signatory to the '1951 UN Convention', relating to the status of refugees, or its '1967 Protocol'*, refugees cannot seek asylum or be granted permanent stay here. Refugees in Indonesia are the wards of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. The UNHCR protects refugees from ‘refoulement’ (being forced to return to their home country), works to find a country of asylum, or offers to return refugees to their home country if it becomes safe.* However, the UNHCR does not provide support for basic needs. Due to changes in refugee policies of many wealthy countries in 2014 (including Australia, often the target for refugees traveling through Indonesia), it is now much harder for a refugee to find asylum. As such, many refugees in Indonesia are stuck chronically waiting for years or even decades, whilst not being allowed to work, have access to health care, schooling, marry or have legal rights of citizenship in the meantime.

The refugee community in Kalideres

In 2019, 1300 refugees began protesting about their conditions and the many years they have to wait for asylum, camping on the street outside the UNHCR office in Jakarta. In order to clear the streets, the city government of Jakarta offered the protestors temporary residence in an old military building in Kalideres. Now, 8 months later, a community of more than 230 people remains in this building. They have no support for food, water, electricity, schooling or medical care. They have been surviving entirely on ad-hoc donations from people who visit their community. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, they have been provided with some masks and soap from the city governor of Jakarta and the UNHCR. However, they still have no help with their basic needs. With the rest of the city in lockdown, it has become much harder for them to get the ad-hoc support and donations they usually rely on to survive. They now face a crisis. 

Data summarized from the UNHCR website.

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Contact Us  

If you have questions, comments, or if you are unable to give a cash donation, but would like to support this solidarity platform in another way, please get in touch with us.

You can contact us using the contact form here, or via the details below:

publishingrefugeesolidarity@gmail.com

@bodies_of_power

www.facebook.com/bodiesofpower/

Thanks for submitting!

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