L O N G S O R
|
|
Gurita Suara: LONGSOR (Landslide)
In the moment before collapse, there is a sound. A tremble. A rupture. LONGSOR is that sound made material—a series of sonic sculptures and installations capturing the tension between beauty and destruction, displacement and resilience, memory and erasure.
Presented as part of Soydivision Berlin’s "Landslide" exhibition, Gurita Suara: LONGSOR engages directly with the metaphor of a landslide—not only as a geological event but as a social, political, and emotional phenomenon. Landslides emerge from the unseen pressures beneath the surface: soil becoming unstable, histories silenced, identities fractured. Likewise, this body of work exposes hidden narratives of post-colonial displacement, ecological devastation, and diasporic longing through the language of sound, material, and movement.
Each of the seven interconnected sub-series functions as a fault line, a site of tension and potential collapse:
In the moment before collapse, there is a sound. A tremble. A rupture. LONGSOR is that sound made material—a series of sonic sculptures and installations capturing the tension between beauty and destruction, displacement and resilience, memory and erasure.
Presented as part of Soydivision Berlin’s "Landslide" exhibition, Gurita Suara: LONGSOR engages directly with the metaphor of a landslide—not only as a geological event but as a social, political, and emotional phenomenon. Landslides emerge from the unseen pressures beneath the surface: soil becoming unstable, histories silenced, identities fractured. Likewise, this body of work exposes hidden narratives of post-colonial displacement, ecological devastation, and diasporic longing through the language of sound, material, and movement.
Each of the seven interconnected sub-series functions as a fault line, a site of tension and potential collapse:
- Selatan reconfigures state-sanctioned rhythms like Jaipong and Samba into a fragmented sonic landscape, interrogating the fabrication of national identities and their lingering echoes in the diaspora.
- Diplomasi Durian performs the sensual and political ritual of belah duren, using the durian’s layered metaphor to explore coexistence and the bittersweet ruptures of post-colonial unity.
- Tenggara (Southeast) is a re-callibration on migration and belonging, channeling the artist’s personal journey from Southeast Asia to Southeast Berlin. Through reimagined DDR-era serving trays and audio tuning processor as sonic objects, it invites audiences to "tune in" to the invisible frequencies of adaptation and survival.
- JIKALAU brings the raw vulnerability of birth cries into tension with historical trauma and guilt, transforming the intimate sounds of the artist’s children into visual and sonic landscapes via typewriters from East and West Germany—tools once used for creation and control.
- Tari Tellerrand animates the everyday act of nourishment into a powerful symbol of survival. Vintage tin plates spin and resonate, invoking the Tari Piring dance and reminding us that even amidst conflict and scarcity, communities gather, eat, and resist.
- Nikellema visualizes the submerged costs of so-called green utopias. With nickel at the center—mined in Indonesia to power Europe’s electric futures—this work holds a drowned Tesla toy like a sunken relic of failed promises, exposing the neo-colonial extractivism hidden beneath sustainability narratives.
- SHSHSH stitches together the artist’s complex heritage through deconstructed batik patterns and sonic translations, proposing a quiet, meditative space of care and intergenerational healing amidst the loud ruptures of history.
photo by Hani Hamza
|
|
|
|
Navigating the Landslide: The Sonic Echoes of Collapse and Resistance
Ariel Orah, March 2025
In the heart of Landslide, amidst the reverberations of displacement and precarity, two distinct yet deeply intertwined sonic works--Sadissonanz and Gurita Suara—occupy a shared space, amplifying each other’s frequencies. While each work emerges from its own conceptual and emotional terrain, their coexistence in this exhibition room forms a dialogue of tension, adaptation, and resistance. Together, they become a layered soundscape of instability and resilience—an auditory metaphor for societies on the brink of collapse, searching for new ways to coexist.
The Rupture: Dissonance as a Sonic Landslide
Sadissonanz embodies the fragmentation of belonging, a sonic study of discord that resonates with the exhibition’s metaphor of landslide (longsor). Just as the shifting earth destabilizes landscapes, Sadissonanz explores the dissonances—cultural, political, and environmental—that unsettle human communities. In this soundscape, the echoes of alienation and estrangement emerge through colliding sonic textures, disrupted rhythms, and unresolved harmonies. Migration, as an experience of displacement, is not just a physical movement but an emotional turbulence—a constant negotiation between past and present, familiarity and foreignness.
In the context of Landslide, Sadissonanz mirrors the sensation of ground giving way beneath one’s feet. It translates the unease of navigating fractured identities in spaces where belonging is uncertain. Just as landslides are triggered by external pressures—whether rain, erosion, or human interference—this sonic work reflects the external forces that push communities to the edge: rising nationalism, environmental degradation, and the relentless commodification of migration narratives.
The Response: Tentacular Listening and Sonic Adaptation
If Sadissonanz represents the rupture, Gurita Suara proposes a way forward—a response to instability through deep, collective listening. The gurita (octopus) serves as a metaphor for resilience, a being that continuously adapts, extending its sensory appendages to perceive and respond to its ever-changing environment. Through its immersive sonic experience, Gurita Suara invites listeners to navigate uncertainty not with fear, but with expanded awareness.
By embracing a polyphonic structure, Gurita Suara resonates with the exhibition’s themes of migration and coexistence. It challenges singular, dominant narratives by amplifying multiple voices, weaving together fragmented sonic elements into an interconnected soundscape. In contrast to Sadissonanz’s portrayal of discord and disruption, Gurita Suara suggests an alternative mode of survival—one that is flexible, fluid, and deeply attuned to the resonances of others.
In the context of Landslide, this work becomes an invitation to listen beyond the immediate noise of crisis. It reflects the ways in which migrant communities, rather than merely reacting to displacement, develop new sonic and cultural languages that transcend borders. It is not just a passive response to instability, but an active reimagining of belonging through sound.
A Room of Sonic Instability and Transformation
Displayed together within the Landslide exhibition, Sadissonanz and Gurita Suara do not simply coexist—they interact. Their tensions and harmonies create an evolving soundscape, mirroring the exhibition’s central questions: What happens when the structures we rely on begin to collapse? How do we navigate the instability of our times? Can we transform dissonance into a new form of connection?
The room in which they are presented becomes a microcosm of the world outside—an unstable terrain where sound collapses, reverberates, and reforms. As visitors move through this space, they become part of this sonic negotiation, caught between the friction of Sadissonanz and the adaptive fluidity of Gurita Suara. It is within this interplay that the possibility of transformation emerges—not by erasing instability, but by learning to listen within it.
In the end, both works—like the broader Landslide exhibition—are not merely about documenting crisis. They are about engaging with it, sensing its vibrations, and finding ways to remain standing amidst the shifting ground.
Ariel Orah, March 2025
In the heart of Landslide, amidst the reverberations of displacement and precarity, two distinct yet deeply intertwined sonic works--Sadissonanz and Gurita Suara—occupy a shared space, amplifying each other’s frequencies. While each work emerges from its own conceptual and emotional terrain, their coexistence in this exhibition room forms a dialogue of tension, adaptation, and resistance. Together, they become a layered soundscape of instability and resilience—an auditory metaphor for societies on the brink of collapse, searching for new ways to coexist.
The Rupture: Dissonance as a Sonic Landslide
Sadissonanz embodies the fragmentation of belonging, a sonic study of discord that resonates with the exhibition’s metaphor of landslide (longsor). Just as the shifting earth destabilizes landscapes, Sadissonanz explores the dissonances—cultural, political, and environmental—that unsettle human communities. In this soundscape, the echoes of alienation and estrangement emerge through colliding sonic textures, disrupted rhythms, and unresolved harmonies. Migration, as an experience of displacement, is not just a physical movement but an emotional turbulence—a constant negotiation between past and present, familiarity and foreignness.
In the context of Landslide, Sadissonanz mirrors the sensation of ground giving way beneath one’s feet. It translates the unease of navigating fractured identities in spaces where belonging is uncertain. Just as landslides are triggered by external pressures—whether rain, erosion, or human interference—this sonic work reflects the external forces that push communities to the edge: rising nationalism, environmental degradation, and the relentless commodification of migration narratives.
The Response: Tentacular Listening and Sonic Adaptation
If Sadissonanz represents the rupture, Gurita Suara proposes a way forward—a response to instability through deep, collective listening. The gurita (octopus) serves as a metaphor for resilience, a being that continuously adapts, extending its sensory appendages to perceive and respond to its ever-changing environment. Through its immersive sonic experience, Gurita Suara invites listeners to navigate uncertainty not with fear, but with expanded awareness.
By embracing a polyphonic structure, Gurita Suara resonates with the exhibition’s themes of migration and coexistence. It challenges singular, dominant narratives by amplifying multiple voices, weaving together fragmented sonic elements into an interconnected soundscape. In contrast to Sadissonanz’s portrayal of discord and disruption, Gurita Suara suggests an alternative mode of survival—one that is flexible, fluid, and deeply attuned to the resonances of others.
In the context of Landslide, this work becomes an invitation to listen beyond the immediate noise of crisis. It reflects the ways in which migrant communities, rather than merely reacting to displacement, develop new sonic and cultural languages that transcend borders. It is not just a passive response to instability, but an active reimagining of belonging through sound.
A Room of Sonic Instability and Transformation
Displayed together within the Landslide exhibition, Sadissonanz and Gurita Suara do not simply coexist—they interact. Their tensions and harmonies create an evolving soundscape, mirroring the exhibition’s central questions: What happens when the structures we rely on begin to collapse? How do we navigate the instability of our times? Can we transform dissonance into a new form of connection?
The room in which they are presented becomes a microcosm of the world outside—an unstable terrain where sound collapses, reverberates, and reforms. As visitors move through this space, they become part of this sonic negotiation, caught between the friction of Sadissonanz and the adaptive fluidity of Gurita Suara. It is within this interplay that the possibility of transformation emerges—not by erasing instability, but by learning to listen within it.
In the end, both works—like the broader Landslide exhibition—are not merely about documenting crisis. They are about engaging with it, sensing its vibrations, and finding ways to remain standing amidst the shifting ground.
Vernissage performance with Maximilian Kupi and Pia Achternkamp (grau&)
Photo by Hani Hamza
|
|
|
|
|
|
