hutan (forest)

A durational performative sound installation

Forests sustain life. They are places of political and economic conflict, but also of memory, imagination and emotion. But what does the complex sound of a forest reveal about our human existence? Can the chorus of an infinite natural sonic landscape be part of our collective physical memory?

During an excursion in 2023 the artistic team spent 24 hours recording the sounds of one of the few remaining primary forests in the world, the Rungan in Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). They selected fragments from this soundscape and assembled them into “Hutan” – an immersive, eight-hour performative sound installation.

Three dancers give this soundscape a unique physicality in directly addressing the psychological and physical effects of the sounds they experience. And they making the act of listening visible. Gradually, new stories emerge in front of the audience, shaped less by actions and myths than by energies and structures.

In this sense, “Hutan” unfolds an intimate perceptual inquiry – a space that opens a mode of listening for the audience and with that a mind to other ways of being. It invites the audience to move around freely and linger. And to let the dynamics of listening, rooted in each individual, grow from a personal, intimate matter into a social and ethical one. Does listening to non-human rhythms and frequencies lead to changes in our self-understanding as humans in the world?

Publications

Interview – MUSEUM OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART SEOUL, August 2025

Full Publication STREAM LIVE ART WRITING

Upcoming

28, 29 November 2026, Wien Modern – Festival for contemporary arts music, Austria

Past Performances

16, 17 August 2025, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary, Korea

7 July 2024, Performa Artjog Yogyakarta, Indonesia

22, 23 June 2024, Komunitas Salihara Jakarta, Indonesia

31 March-1 April 2023,  Kunstquartier Bethanien Berlin (WIP), Germany

Credits:

  • We would like to acknowledge Rungan forest and its sounding animals as the primary creators of hutan.
  • KATIA ENGEL – concept, sound recording, artistic director
  • ARI ERSANDI – performance, sound recording, co-director
  • SISILIA HANGIN - performance, co-creator
  • POLETT KASZA– performance, co-creator
  • HELLY MINARTI – dramaturgy
  • THOMAS SCHAUPP - dramaturgy
  • RISKI ADE PRADISTA - lighting design
  • SAMUEL HERTZ - sound editing, sound design
  • GATOT DANAR SULISTIYANTO - sound design (premiere in Jakarta, 2024)
  • FELIX-FLORIAN TÖDTLOFF – sound design (work in progress in Berlin, 2023)
  • YENNU ARIENDRA - sound design consultant
  • FAOZAN RIZAL – sound recording, film documentation
  • Photography: Park Seunghyuk, provided by MMCA

with the support of:

  • International Coproduction Fund (IKF) of the Goethe-Institute
  • Komunitas Salihara as Co-presenter (premiere 22-23 June 2024)
  • Fond Darstellende Künste
  • Institute for Foreign Affairs Germany

in partnership with:

  • Indigenous Dayak Ngaju community Munku Baru, Central Kalimantan,
  • Borneo Nature Foundation, Central Kalimantan
  • University Muhammadiyah Palangkaraya-Unit KHDTK, Central Kalimantan
  • Ladaya Foundation Tenggarong, East Kalimantan
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