Pos (concept)

Pos
Concept, 2021
Mixed media spacial installation and performance inspired by a phenomenon in Indonesia / bamboo, wood, corrugated iron, mats, ketungan, TV, thermos with sweetened tea, glasses, kretek cigarettes, ashtray, a few Indonesians / size may vary / images below from the internet

Every kampung in Indonesia, every neighbourhood, has a pos kamling or pos ronda: a small building for neighbourhood watch. There is a traditional architectural style for it: the construction is an open structure on stilts with a roof and usually a (low) wall.
In the evening and night (male) residents of the kampung keep watch in the pos. This service rotates and is voluntary. During daytime people seek shelter from the sun or take a nap. Often there is a TV to kill the time.

For the 2021 edition of the Amsterdam Imagine Film Festival, a festival for fantastic film, I proposed to build a traditional pos in public space next to their festival location EYE Filmmuseum. On a TV in the installation we wanted to screen the Indonesian horror television series from the eighties KISMIS. At the opening of the festival I planned to have a performance inside Pos: some Indonesians sit there, smoke kretek, drink tea and talk a bit.

Unfortunately the festival took place online only due to Covid and the realisation of Pos was cancelled. The concept of Pos found its way in my future work though and has been integrated in the commissioned installation Hoef van Eden in Alkmaar in 2023.