The Undertow of Sorrow

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Dengan memanfaatkan pergerakan, tarikan, putaran arus bawah air laut dangkal yang tercemar Irwan Ahmett dan Tita Salina mewujudkan sebuah pertemuan yang tidak biasa diantara tiga elemen yang melebur dalam perlintasan perasaan manusia, kehancuran ekologi dan benturan ideologi. Intervensi ini merupakan ziarah pada kisah-kisah kepiluan di kepulauan-kepulauan yang tidak punya jalan keluar selain tenggelam.

Pria laut
Seorang keturunan suku Bugis, etnis termasyhur sebagai penjelajah laut tangguh dari kawasan Nusantara. Bagi keluarganya arus laut adalah jalan keluar untuk bertahan hidup di Jakarta. Setiap hari ia harus bekerja semakin keras karena berkurangnya hasil tangkapan akibat overfishing, pencemaran dan reklamasi pulau buatan.

Pulau Ubi Besar
Sebuah pulau yang sekarang sudah seluruhnya tenggelam karena abrasi dan proses penambangan pasir. Pengungsi iklim terjadi pada tahun 1954 dengan eksodus seluruh penghuni pulau karena kualitas hidup di Pulau Ubi yang semakin buruk. Seiring bandara internasional Soekarno Hatta didirikan dan naiknya permukaan laut maka tenggelamlah pulau itu. Yang terlihat tinggal coral-coral mati memutih dan derasnya arus laut menarik kuat-kuat benda apa saja tanpa ada jalan keluar.  

Pemberontak
Kartosuwiryo pemimpin pemberontakan DaruI Islam/Tentara Islam Indonesia bersama pengikutnya memproklamasikan Negara Islam Indonesia setelah bergerilya bertahun-tahun akhirnya tak bisa lagi melarikan diri dikepung oleh militer dan rakyat sipil. Pejuang kemerdekaan itu akhirnya dijatuhi hukuman mati di Pulau Ubi pada tahun 1962 dimana sebagian pulau masih terlihat di foto dokumentasi eksekusinya. Walaupun kuburan dan pulaunya sudah tenggelam, gerakan ideologi ini tidak turut tenggelam, selalu berubah bentuk menyesuaikan, mengintai arus peradaban dan lunturnya nilai demokrasi di Indonesia.

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By utilizing movements, tractions, streams of the undertow from the highest tide recorded in this month (October 2020) impacted from La Niña in polluted shallow seawater, Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina undertook an unusual encounter among three elements that fuse in the crossing of human emotion, destruction of ecology and clash of ideologies. This intervention is a pilgrimage to stories of sorrow in the islands that led to dead ends except to sink.

Seafarer
A man from the Bugis tribe, an eminent tribe as a tough sea explorer from Makassar, Sulawesi in Indonesia. This tribe has also explored Siam and the descendants remain in Bangkok in an area called Makkasan. To his family, seawave is a way out to survive in Jakarta. Everyday he has to work harder and harder due to the dwindling catch impacted from overfishing, pollution and land/island reclamation.

Ubi Besar Island
An island that has completely disappeared now because of abrasion and sand mining. In 1954, there were climate refugees, an exodus of Ubi Besar island dwellers due to the quality of life was worsening. Along with the construction of international airport Soekarno-Hatta and the rise of sea level, the island had gone underwater. What can be seen now is dead corals and strong current draws any kind of objects with no escape.

A Rebel
Kartosoewirjo was the leader of rebellion group DI/TII - Darul Islam/Tentara Islam Indonesia (Islamic Armed Forces of Indonesia), he declared an Islamic State in Indonesia in 1949, led guerilla operations for years until he was captured in his hideout by military and civilians. The freedom fighter was finally sentenced to death and executed in Ubi Besar Island in 1962, where at that time some parts of the island was still above the water as seen on the photo documentation of the execution of Kartosoewirjo. Although his grave and the island have been submerged, the ideology has not. It changes in many different forms adjusting and lurking the stream of civilization and the fading of democratic values in Indonesia.

Filming location: Ubi Besar Island, Kepulauan Seribu, Jakarta Bay, Indonesia