Yogyakarta, November 20th 2020—Youth Studies Center (YouSure) FISIPOL UGM involved in the Dialogue on Arts and Human Rights by Institut Ungu in order to welcome the 16 Days Campaign for Anti Violence against Women and Human Rights Day on 25 November – 10 December.
The Institut Ungu is an arts and cultural organization that promotes gender equality and human rights. Established in 2003, the Institut Ungu has produced various works of art and educational activities or campaigns related to human rights.
A series of activities on the Art and Human Rights Dialogue were carried out to propose the idea that human rights and art have a very close and needy relationship. According to the press conference of the Art and Human Rights Dialogue (19/11), Institut Ungu tried to raise and convey human rights issues through cultural arts in collaboration with various parties such as five theater groups from five cities in Indonesia, YouSure UGM, KontraS, Amnesty International, Perempuan Mahardika, Art Coalition of Indonesia, Sahabat Seni Nusantara, and Women’s Art Network.
Faiza Mardzoeki, a producer and translator of the script for the film theater that was promoted in this activity, feels that the issue of human rights violations in Indonesia has not progressed significantly to this day.
“None of the cases of human rights violations in Indonesia have been taken seriously. Starting from the issues in 1965, 1998, to the Munir and Wiji Thukul cases,” Faiza said. In fact, the issue of human rights should get the attention of all citizens. He hopes that the art from various collaborations through various media will be able to raise issues of human rights violations and become a means to voice them to all levels of society.
Together with YouSure FISIPOL UGM, Institut Ungu will release the podcast Human Rights Intergenerational Talk on Spotify and YouTube on November 23rd. Diana Fahadi, a representative from YouSure UGM, said that young people are often seen as not caring about and not contributing to human rights enforcement in Indonesia. Therefore, this podcast brings together students, teachers, artists, and survivors of past human rights violations to involve the perspectives of young people in discussing the issue of human rights violations. In addition, the Ungu Institute together with YouSure will release a video Young People Talking about Human Rights involving students and university students on November 30th.
The main activity of this Art and Human Rights Dialogue was a movie theater online show entitled Time Without Books which was produced by five female directors: Ramdiana from Aceh, Hella Sinaga from Bandung, Ruth Marini from Jakarta, Shinta Febriany from Makassar, and Agnes Christina from Yogyakarta. This film theater was also the result of a collaboration with Kala Teater Makassar, Mainteater Bandung, Ruang Kala Jakarta, and the Sapulidi Aceh Theater Union.
This film theater is based on a drama script by a Norwegian playwright, Lene Therese Teigen, which tells the story of the victims of past human rights violations of the dictatorship in Uruguay. One of the directors involved, Agnes Christina, said that this theater work also depicts the trauma-healing process experienced by the victims.
The five directors produce five different theater performances according to their interpretations. The five shows will be shown in rotation from 1 – 10 December on Institut Ungu Indonesia YouTube channel.
Wawan Sofwan, a consultant in the process of making the theater film, said that producing theater works online is also quite challenging. One of them is combining cinematographic aspects that are usually not involved in the theater performance process. Online shows make cinematographic aspects influence how viewers perceive meaning and interpret stories.
Apart from film theater as well as podcast and video productions, other activities include the launch of the drama script book and the TWB Film Theater on November 25th. On the same day, a discussion on Arts and Human Rights will be held with the topic “How art can play a role in the defense of human rights and social justice”.
The series of activities closed with a discussion with the theme “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights” which was a collaboration with Jakarta Feminist on December 10th. Anindya Restuviana, program director of Jakarta Feminist, said that women’s issues are often considered unimportant. For example, the issue of the Elimination of Sexual Violence Bills (RUU PKS) is very difficult to voice.
“In my opinion, the discussion that we will hold on Human Rights Day is the right time to emphasize that the issue of women is also a human rights issue,” she said.