It is with great pleasure that the selection committee of Atelier KITLV and Framer Framed announce Theo Frids Marulitua Hutabarat from Bandung, Indonesia as the winner of our Artist Call. The KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies has commissioned an original work of visual art for our space at Leiden University.

The selection committee was fascinated by Hutabarat’s take on archives of the colonial past of the Dutch East Indies and the way in which the anonymous photographer plays a role in constructing a one dimensional view of history. We were particularly impressed by his observation that “archival images have transformative power that, in return, create and legitimize power. Thus, I take interest in the archives of KITLV which I see as crucial factor to exercise civic rights regarding Indonesia’s history, where ‘the anonymous’ took a great part of it”.

Theo Frids Marulitua Hutabarat (1987) has a Master’s degree in Fine Art from the Faculty of Art and Design at Bandung Institute of Technology. His work was part of group exhibitions in Bandung, Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Singapore, Turin and Yogyakarta.

Atelier KITLV is a working group within the institute with Framer Framed as a partner. We are dedicated to creating space for conversation and collaboration between academics, artists, activists, writers, and journalists and to exploring the intersections between scholarship and other domains of knowledge and curiosity. With this goal in mind, we hope this new visual piece will serve as a starting point for ongoing reflection on the changing character of the KITLV. Theo Frids Marulitua Hutabarat will have access to KITLV staff and collections and will engage in dialogue with both to inform and inspire his work. The work itself is the first in a series of visual conversations, to which future artists may respond.

Photo: Theo Frids Marulitua Hutabarat by Maruto Ardi.