CONNECTIONS

Karel Doing & Lulu Ratna
DVD
Installation (single channel loop)
7 minutes colour 2004

The Netherlands and Indonesia are inextricably connected because of their history. Many Dutch people and Indonesians still have personal memories of the direct links with the colonial society that the Netherlands imposed on Indonesia. The video installation Connections is about the visible and hidden relations between the two countries, the personal and more universal similarities and differences.

Karel Doing (Rotterdam) and Lulu Ratna (Jakarta) collected footage on their regular train journeys. Trains and stations are a sort of democratic gathering of citydwellers. Here people get together with a shared goal, but individual interests. These are the marketplaces of coming and going, selling the gratification of ones desire to elsewhere, platform for wanted and unwanted meetings, crossroad of crossroads.

The artists also started a list of shared words in both languages (Dutch, Bahassa Indonesia). These words are an example of the painfull and at the same time colourfull way both cultures influenced eachother.

- aanval - aanval
- afdruk - afdruk
- amok - amuk
- apotheek - apotik
- baboe - babu
- batik - batik
- beha - beha
- beton - beton
- bischop - beskap
- bioscoop - bioskop
- brandkast - brankas
- contant - kontan
- fabriek - paberik
- fluit - pluit
- gang - gang
- handdoek - handuk
- kampong - kampung
- klamboe - kelambu
- klapper - kelapa
- klewang - klewang
- knalpot - knalpot
- koffie - kopi
- kokkie - koki
- korting - korting
- koelie - kuli
- kroepoek - krupuk
- makelaar - makelaar
- mattaklap - matta gelap
- ongkosten - ongkos
- orang oetan - orang hutan
- pisang - pisang
- plakaat - plakat
- postpakket - pospaket
- potlood - potlot
- precies - persis
- rekening - rekening
- rotan - rotan
- sadist - sadis
- sambal - sambal
- sarong - sarong
- sate - sate
- sawa - sawah
- senang - senang
- soesa - susah
- spandoek - spanduk
- spoor - sepur
- stempel - stempel
- verboden - verboden
- voorschot - persekot
- wastafel - wastafel
- zending - zending
- zuster - suster

Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam 26 june - 22 august 2004
Part of 'Indonesia Under Construction' in the series 'Work in Transit' curated by Tanja Elstgeest.

Single channel version exhibited at Montevideo 13 - 18 december 2005.