Collecting OtherwiseCollecting Otherwise

“Where do you live, ma’am?”

“Dago,” replied Nanik, a hawker who sells beverages across from the Savoy Homann Hotel, a building in Bandung, Indonesia that was redesigned in the 1930s by Dutch architect A.F. Aalbers.

The archives of Albert Frederik Aalbers’ architectural works, in the Nieuwe Instituut collection, not only showcase his Modernist designs, but also capture everyday scenes in Bandung. Most of Aalbers’ works, with their distinctive shapes, adorn the northern area of the city, which was reserved for Europeans and the wealthy community during the Dutch colonial era, leaving the southern part for the indigenous and poorer community. Jalan Asia Afrika (then de Grote Postweg) was the invisible line dividing north and south Bandung. Is social segregation still maintained today? From the photographs in the Aalbers’ archives, it appears that marginalised communities survive by selling around colonial buildings: there are peddlers, cigarette stalls, and various interventions in this reputedly elite area. After 78 years of independence, how do the people of Bandung coexist with this colonial legacy?

Yasmin Tri Aryani, researcher, graphic recorder, and Collecting Otherwise Working Group member, proposed and led the Mapping Collective Memories walking tour, which attempts to record contemporary interactions with, and interventions in, A.F. Aalbers’ works in an iterative collective map. As a tool, the annotated maps and walks attempt to explicate contemporary views on Aalbers’ built heritage.

The first iteration includes the locations of his buildings, illustrations of them, illustrated snippets of conversations about Aalbers’ work, and everyday situations around the premises. Participants are prompted to overlay this map with sketches or written accounts of their memories, or momentary impressions of the places they visit during the walking tour. These new layers will be a part of the community’s collective memory, adding complexity to an otherwise singular, commonly held history.

As a preparation, colleagues from the Nieuwe Instituut’s Collections, Research, and Hospitality/Co-Education departments shared their insights on tying archival material to lived, daily experiences of built heritage. Walks and detours as tools served as best practices.

During the first two walking tours, Yasmin collaborated with local communities, namely Bandung Good Guide and Komunitas Aleut. Both walking tours targeted different participants with a shared enthusiasm for (architectural) history. Bandung Good Guide participants were from Jakarta and Bandung, with varied educational backgrounds. Komunitas Aleut attracted local Bandung people who have actively joined their exploration of colonial heritage in Bandung. In addition, together we invited local architects, historians, botanists, archaeologists and anthropologists to join the walking tour.

The participants were given time to share their stories in front of other participants. Their stories slowly filled the gaps between what they had heard from the guides to the present moment. Remembering how their own kitchens and childhood homes had looked while looking at how Aalbers designed houses in Bandung. Or, for example, how one participant knows Aalbers’ Sadangsari Villa as Gampong Aceh, a food court that sells Acehnese cuisine. Knowledge exchanges also happened between participants: a botanist revealed the history of the trees in front of the villas in Jalan Pager Gunung, an anthropologist shared his experience of Dago living, and an architecture professor answered other participants’ questions about colonial buildings.

Mapping Collective Memories is envisaged as a vessel to evoke this kind of transfer of knowledge. After the first two walking tours, participants’ reactions will be collected and processed into the second iteration of the map. Digitisation of the maps is planned in order to return the stories to local communities and a larger audience. Sharing one’s memories and knowledge with each other is intended to claim one’s own space and blur the segregation – the invisible boundaries inflicted by colonial heritage. In the end, hopefully, this could foster more of a sense of familiarity and belonging in the city.