During its opening, Prof. Dr. Marieke Bloembergen gave a presentation titled "Unsettling 'Asian Art': From Bandung to Greater India, from Local Genius to the Global South – Towards Alternative Mobile Histories". Her presentation was held on Tuesday (08/11/2022) in the Seminar Room of ITB FAD CAD Building.

Prof. Bloembergen is a professor specializing in Indonesia’s post-colonial history at Leiden University. She is also a senior researcher at KITLV. Her research focuses on the cultural themes and political dynamics during the colonialism and postcolonialism eras of Indonesia. In 2020, she published the paper "The politics of heritage in Indonesia. A cultural history" with Martijn Eickhoff. Currently, she is in the middle of writing a book manuscript entitled "Indonesia and the Greater Indian Mindset. Moveable objects, enchanted knowledge networks, 1880s-1990s."

Prof. Bloembergen raised questions about how to decolonize art and what would change if decolonization were considered an activity that changes the power structure of appreciation, taxation, and creation. Reviewing between Indonesia and the Western society, she explores how the social biography of an object can be identified as 'Asian Art'.

From Indonesia, Prof. Bloembergen's perspective of art shifts from simply framing to a more dynamic alternative of understanding art history. The network of artists, experts, and culturalists make the artworks seem to facilitate nationalists and transnational hegemonic structures throughout the decolonization process, which affirms the idea of Greater Indian art, and contends with the concept of “local geniuses centered on the country”.

Prof. Bloembergen's focus is on the methodical categorization of objects to be considered as 'Asian Art'. She believes that her research may be useful in changing the perspective on modern art from Southeast Asia as well as delving into its potential. This research also serves for a more social and dynamic understanding of art that can be part of the way we think and present art.

Reporter: Inas Annisa Aulia (Visual Arts, 2020)
Translator: Ruth Nathania (Environmental Engineering, 2019)