Temporary House of Home
Until recently, many living rooms in The Netherlands were decorated with objects recalling the colonial past of the former Dutch East Indies. A Paisley scarf draped over the mantelpiece, an ashtray of Djokja silver, a painting of a volcano (usually Merapi) surrounded by endless rice paddies - these were all part of a repertoire of objects, referring to the former Dutch East Indies. How do we look at such domestic objects today, and to what extent are we haunted by the colonial past? Do these objects speak of a reassuring connection with a recent past or do they silently haunt our homes?
Haunted: And Other Spectres
In her video installation Haunted film-maker Janilda Bartolomeu investigates how the nostalgia surrounding the Dutch East Indies acts as a wellspring of forgetfulness. Forgetfulness regarding a contested but frequently ignored history belonging to the colonial ghosts of Dutch historiography. The installation foreshadows the fourth part of the [And Other Spectres](http://And Other Spectres) research project that attempts to reinterpret these colonial ghosts. By seeing them as living beings and as memories linked to bodies, spaces and objects, in both Indonesia and the Netherlands. The objects in the installation act as the carriers of nostalgia. While purpose of colonialism is to assign bodies, materials and objects an allotted place and keep them there, the objects in this installation question that colonial notion and introduce reflection and critique as a possible escape.
Research and film: Janilda Bartolomeu