Seeing the Past from the Future at APAITUAMI

12/10/2020

apaituami is an exhibition or research which aims to review the group of Aristek Muda Indonesia (Young Indonesian Architects or AMI) which, as some of its figures said, with more or less the same expressions, is a "historical accident". An accident cannot be repeated or engineered.

It can be said that the 1989 - 1999 era was the most dynamic era in the overall journey of AMI; an era in which a group of young architects, with the same restlessness, bind themselves in a spirit of searching for new architectural expressions to break the stagnation. Throughout this era, they attempted to seize discourse, solidify positions, claim authority, assert roles in various "territories", control the media, and plant flags at every point of achievement. Understanding AMI is understanding this energising work.

After this era, each AMI members focused more on their individual work and personal pursuits. AMI's activities were then carried out by many successors of AMI, a group of younger architects, who inherited a passion for exhibiting and publishing their designs in various media. If the ontological problem of AMI is the absence of an ideological basis that binds its movement, so that this group in the end is more involved in design issues that are more related to the visual aspect, then that is also their strength, where each core activist succeeds to develop themselves to become architects who have high geometric fluency and have the ability to build a young architectural society that is increasingly enthusiastic about the world of architecture through exhibitions and publications.

While preserving without organisation, without definite membership - AMI is slowly retreating from collective memory and architectural public debate. This exhibition is a retrospect that seeks to present the passionate spirit of driving change from AMI through archives, documents, and interviews with AMI's core activists, as well as AMI observers, supporters, and devotees, especially those who intersected and were involved with AMI in the 1989 to 1999 era

What you may not find in this exhibition is a definition of what exactly is AMI? Which even the members find it difficult to describe with certainty.

Exhibition date: 7 December 2020 to 7 January 2021
Location: Rumah 28, Jalan Manyar, South Jakarta
Curator: Avianti Armand, Setiadi Sopandi, Rifandi Nugroho
Exhibition Design: Andra Matin, Andre Simapranata, Paskalis Dwilianda, Aistyara Charmita, Shafira Ramadhani, Irfan Surjanto, Cynthia Margareth Budiono
Graphic Design: Karyarupa (Cici Anindhita dan Donny Kusmadi)
Multimedia: Jonathan Raditya

Find out more and get your tickets here.

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Shaza Dzulkifly
Author
A Malaysian who now calls Indonesia her home. Shaza's career has taken her across multiple communications channels such as radio, TV, print, digital and social as well as PR and advertising.