On July 27, Keg and I held a film screening and book launch of Cities Without Maps - Kota Tanpa Peta with the Warung Cinema in a vacant lot on the Kali Code, Ratmakan kampung. This was the first screening of Cities Without Maps - Kota Tanpa Peta a film project coming out of our Asialink residency in Yogyakarta (made with Vanie, a local activist from Kali Code). The event was very well attended by the local community and also by other artists and friends who came down to watch the film in the place where it was made. Everyone was encouraged to bring food to share which was placed on the warung in exchange for a copy of the book. We also bought a large bunch of balloons as a thank you for the kids who helped out in the project by coming along to the drawing workshop. The night after we held a second screening at Mes 56 an photography collective from Yogyakarta. This also attracted a large crowd and provoked a heated discussion over community based art projects.Cities Without Maps - Kota Tanpa Peta is an artistic mapping project of Ratmakan and Jagalan, two kampungs along the Kali Code. Both these kampungs are squatter communities - people's houses are built on a former rubbish dump and graveyard. Cities Without Maps uses animation and film to explore the politics of space in this area including issues such as the development of new housing estates and the fragile ownership the local community has over their land. The film looks at how children, teenagers men and women all use space differently and how these over lapping uses of space constitute the local area. The film uses the metaphore of ghost stories - which predominate in a community built on a former graveyard (and where some houses still have tombs in rooms of the house) - to look at how different generations have used space and the fleeting relationship we create with the material world.
If you would like a copy of the book and film Cities Without Maps - Kota Tanpa Peta please send me an email.
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