Upon Return to a Beach that Never Was

COLLABORATION WITH KAE (Kae Oktarina)
Multi-media installation with performance
Duration approx 30 minutes.
Jakarta, 2024

Upon Return to A Beach That Never Was is a dual-channel video, installation, and performance exploring artificial beaches in North Jakarta as a lens to examine themes of desolation, displacement, and longing. In a society driven by capitalism and productivity, the yearning for contemplative landscapes has resulted in more artificial beaches—fragmented imitations of natural shorelines that occupy reclaimed land.

Drawing inspiration from Krisna Murti’s E(ART)HQUAKE (2012), which portrays the futile attempt to relive a seascape memory, KAE and Kosasie view the imported sands of artificial beaches as carriers of displaced memories such as the erasing of entire islands.

During visits to Ancol Beach, KAE and Kosasie discovered remnants of carpet embedded in the shoreline, revealing it as an essential foundation for these artificial beaches. Identifying the beach as a nebulous body needing the carpet for support, Kosasie compares its use to that of the stagen—a long, thin cloth tightly wrapped around the torso. The stagen, paradoxically permitting the user more power and bodily awareness through binding, was worn historically by soldiers of war, traditional dancers, and postpartum women. Kosasie wears a stagen crafted from the same carpet material found on the beach throughout the filming affecting her movements and breathing as she draws energy from the surrounding environment.