LOOT AS A LASTING INFLUENCE IN REVOLUSI! THE OPENNESS AND NORMALCY OF SEIZURE.
| Author | Dekker, Elsbeth |
"Hello folks,
Today I shall try to cobble together a letter. And even on a seized typewriter." (1)
These light-hearted words on a yellowed-papered letter, are part of an eye- witness account in the exhibition Revolusi!, held at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (11 February--5 June 2022). Written by a nineteen-year old, Dutch, voluntary soldier called Hans van Santen, 'In the field, 28 July 1947', informing his family in the Netherlands during 'Operation Product': the code name for the first military campaign by the Dutch authorities in the Republic of Indonesia--what the imperial Dutch government, at that moment, still considered to be the Dutch East Indies.
The exhibition focuses on a violent part of history: the war of independence fought between 1945 and 1949 in the Indonesian archipelago. (2) By bringing together objects relating to personal accounts of people--artists, activists, civilians, politicians, journalists--who witnessed the revolution, while also collaborating with present-day Indonesian curators and people outside the Museum, the Rijksmuseum aims:
to contribute to a broader history of the Netherlands, to mutual understanding and connection among the numerous groups in Dutch society upon whom the Indonesian revolution has had significant and lasting influence. (3) Although the exhibition pays particular attention to the timeframe of 1945-1949, therewith, presenting the period rather hermetically, I want to blur these boundaries of time--prior, during and after--by addressing a 'lasting influence' lingering through the exhibition: the fate of objects and materials seized by military forces on territories of former colonies. By bringing this category of objects, as presented in the exhibition, into both a linguistic discussion and the norms of warfare, this note will touch on a legal gap providing protection to (cultural) property of former colonies--creating (historical) opportunities for the taking of objects while placing a firm grip on (present) questions of legality.
The relative openness and normalcy of seizure, mirrored by the opening words of the letter by Van Santen, becomes evident as well as problematic in the first galleries of the exhibition. While starting with the proclamation of independence by Sukarno on 17 August 1945, documented by the photographer Soemarto Frans Mendur, the exhibition immediately continues with a presentation of young Indonesian people on a wall. In front of the wall, a large glass column containing nothing more than a small and worn out book from which the images are derived: a so-called book of friends by Sutarso Nasrudin--a soldier within the Siliwangi Divisi, an elite regiment of the Indonesian army, who was imprisoned and executed at the end of 1948 by Dutch soldiers. (4) As stated by the audio tour:
Similar to Nasrudin's book of friends, many of the objects in this exhibition ended up in the Netherlands because they were confiscated by the Dutch during the Indonesian revolution. (5) In the catalogue, the curator, Harm Stevens, stresses the importance of this delicate object; the challenges posed to matters of care and belonging, the value of provenance research, and questions of meaning and ownership within current debates on looted art and the restitution of objects collected in former colonies. "From private album to instrument of intelligence work to public asset: these are steps that are far too jarring." (6) But how do we understand the jarring character of these steps? Where can we find its roots and how do we grapple with questions of objects collected in former colonies relating to contemporary debates on looted art and restitution?
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