Room-filling installation in the Elbow Church

The Javanese collective GEGERBOYO made especially for the Elleboogkerk the space-filling work Eroded Borders: a layered installation in the form of a fort, questioning colonial history, identity and power. The work acts as a living monument of resistance, remembrance and cultural continuity.

At Eroded Borders GEGERBOYO focuses on the constantly changing meaning of borders and territory. The work shows how these have emerged and shifted throughout history in the Indonesian archipelago: from Hindu-Buddhist empires such as Mataram and Majapahit and Muslim Mataram, colonial rule by Portugal, Britain and mainly the Netherlands, the Japanese occupation and finally the independence struggle and post-colonial period.

These historical power shifts were often accompanied by new forms of territorial demarcation, with borders increasingly used by colonial powers from the sixteenth century onward to maintain control over trade in valuable commodities such as cloves, tea, coffee, sugar, quinine and nutmeg. In the process, they took on tangible forms, such as forts, ports and high fences, which not only expressed territorial power but also defined cultural relations and economic structures. Even in today's world, this history still operates, and the demarcation of land remains a source of conflict, in which power relations, religion, ethnicity and ideology play a defining role - often at the expense of lives, culture and livelihoods.

Eroded Borders shows that borders are not static. They are continually redefined by how societies understand themselves, write history and organize power. GEGERBOYO incorporates a wide range of sources in the installation: from historical figures, both heroes and perpetrators, and official historiography to propaganda, local narratives and alternative perspectives. By bringing all these layers together, the work invites reflection: what do borders mean today, and how do they affect our view of the past, present and future?