Jakarta Post: La Sirene, the mermaid fighting oppression

By Sylviana Hamdani

The Erasmus Huis Jakarta presents an interdisciplinary exhibition, themed La Sirène, with a combination of folklore about mermaids from many different countries. 

Many cultures pride themselves on a story of a powerful being that guards the oceans. And it turns out the Caribbean, Indonesia, the Netherlands and West Africa share a myth of a female entity, said to have the upper body of a woman and the tail of a fish, defending their seas. Dutch artists Junadry Leocaria and Richard Kofi, who have Caribbean and West African origins, have recently breathed life into this legendary creature and brought her to the Erasmus Huis, Jakarta, in an exhibition themed La Sirène. “La Sirène is a Caribbean spirit, a magical mermaid,” Richard Kofi said in an interview with The Jakarta Post at the opening of the exhibition on Feb. 8.

“There have been all kinds of sightings of her, all kinds of folktales around her being.” Inspired by the mermaid, Kofi and his fiancée Leocaria presented a dance performance in Amsterdam in October 2022. A representative of the Erasmus Huis then invited them to do the same performance in Jakarta. 

“But we didn’t want to impose our thoughts or art on the Indonesian public,” Kofi said. “We wanted to collaborate with local artists to share our stories [and] our platform together.” 

In December 2022, these Dutch artists held an open call to multimedia artists, fashion designers and dancers in Indonesia to do a residency in Salihara Arts Center, South Jakarta, with them. 

“We were surprised that 48 people signed up for it,” Kofi said. “They’re all ambitious and have a lot to bring to the table.”  Kofi and Leocaria then selected five Indonesia-based artists and fashion designers, as well as eight Indonesian dancers, to collaborate for the project.  

During their one-month residency at Salihara, all the participants shared local myths of the mermaid and worked together in creating her story for the exhibition. 

Bringing the mermaid to life A beautiful dance, held at the auditorium of Erasmus Huis Jakarta, opened the exhibition on Feb. 8.  During the 45-minute show, eight Indonesian dancers, choreographed by Leocaria, combined ballet, hip hop, Waacking and the Caribbean Tambu dances into an energetic performance that told the story of mermaids. 

Their costumes, made of sheer, lustrous chiffon, ebbed and flowed with their dynamic movements during the performance.  Batik designer and lecturer at ESMOD Jakarta, Liesna S. Subianto, designed the dancers’ outfits. 

“I was inspired by water when designing their costumes,” Liesna said. “Everything always starts and ends with water. [Water] always provides.”  For La Sirène, the entrance of the exhibition hall of the Erasmus Huis Jakarta is covered with a white screen, on which is projected an introductory video of the exhibition. 

The looping 2.5-minute video was filmed and directed by Indonesian multimedia artist Tison Baim.  “The video tells the story of Nyi Roro Kidul being chased by an army,” Tison said. “She then jumped into the sea and transformed into a powerful being.” 

According to the very popular story in Java, Nyi Roro Kidul was a beautiful princess that was cursed by her stepmother and developed a horrible skin disease. Banished from her own kingdom, the princess was directed by a mysterious voice to immerse herself in the sea to be healed. 

Legend has it the princess was not only cured, but also received a magical power at the sea. Since then, Nyi Roro Kidul has lived and built her kingdom in the ocean. 

“Many sightings report her as a very beautiful woman, dressed in green kebaya, with a fishtail for legs,” Tison said. “But we’re not only bringing her story to the exhibition, but also, more importantly, her fighting spirit.” 

“As a princess, Nyi Roro Kidul fought against greed and oppression and then become queen protector of the southern sea.”   References to the Queen of the South Sea are all over the exhibition. One of the walls in the exhibition hall is covered with wallpaper portraying the Queen’s long, green scarf being carried away by billowing waves in the ocean. 

The wallpaper, themed Southbound, is designed by a young artist from Yogyakarta, Tiara Alifa Putri Pratomoaji. “For me, it’s really impressive that the Dutch, Caribbean, West African and Indonesian people share very similar stories about mermaids,” the 21-year-old art student said. “These similarities have also brought us very close together during our residency. We’re almost like a family.”

Just across from the wallpaper is a huge collage of wheat-paste posters, designed by Tiara and Kofi, which portray the Caribbean mermaid, La Sirène, dancing in front of a horde of angry snakes. Also portrayed in the posters are Indonesian free-speech activists Munir Said Thalib, Soe Hok Gie and Usmar Ismail.

A fragment of the poem “Silencio” (Silence) by Argentinian author Alfonsina Storni (1892 – 1938) is scribbled across the collage.  “La Sirène symbolizes consciousness,” Kofi said. “She challenges us all to be more aware of what’s going on in the environment, protection of free speech [and] freedom of religion.” 

Vitrines at the center of the exhibition hall display all the artists’ original sketches and notes taken during their many brainstorming sessions while doing their residency at Salihara.  

Saving the ocean            

The other half of the exhibition hall is designed to resemble the undersea, with dimmed lighting and dark curtains obscuring the walls.  A haunting soundscape, which is a combination of rambunctious ocean waves, bubbling water, excerpts of maritime radio communications and a woman’s humming and sighing, echoes throughout the hall.  The soundscape was created by Indonesian sound artist Kelvin Djunaidi.  “With the soundscape, I’m trying to present some of the sounds that we often hear at sea to the visitors,” the sound artist and schoolteacher said. 

A gorgeous picture of La Sirène looking up, while sitting on a rock at the bottom of the sea, is a focal point in the exhibition.  “[The picture] portrays the depth of the ocean where the sun doesn’t shine,” Dutch artist Richard Kofi said. “There’s a lot of research being done to see if humans can explore that zone because there are so many fish down there and so many possibilities for energy and resources.” 

In the photo, La Penumbra, Leocaria posed as the mermaid wearing a vibrantly colored tail designed by Jesús Cedeño, a Venezuelan designer who has been living in Indonesia for eight years.  The gorgeous 2.9 meter by 1.80 m tail is also displayed in the exhibition hall. 

“The entire tail is made of batik scraps from many different cities along the northern and southern coasts of Java,” Cedeño said. “It took me three weeks nonstop to create it.”   With the artwork, the fashion designer and all the artists participating in the exhibition want to remind us all to protect the ocean. 

“As humans, we litter so much in the ocean, so [Cedeño] kind of imagined the mermaid forming her tail out of all the junk, which is obviously a plea for us to reuse everything instead of throwing it all away,” Dutch artist Richard Kofi explained.  Tison Baim also hoped the exhibition would inspire visitors to protect the ocean. 

“We should really stop trashing our seas and endangering the marine life within,” the multimedia artist said. “If we don’t take care of our planet, then who will?” 

This article was published in thejakartapost.com. Click to read: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2023/03/24/la-sirne-the-mermaid-fighting-against-oppression.html.