Against the backdrop of post-independence nation-building, especially during the New Order regime, Indonesia has consistently assimilated the ocean to a land-based perspective, and one moreover that focuses -- under the rubric of ‘landscape’-- on its more solid, extractive, and materially driven formations. But this was not always the case. What happens if we regard the land from the point of view of the sea?

Nyegara-Gunung is a divine “marriage” of two powerful natural elements, inextricably tied to one another. Whatever occurs on the summit of a mountain, for example, has a direct effect on the sea and vice versa. It is through the liminal interaction of these primordial forces and elements that the universe and all life within it are created.

On Friday, a performance will be held drawing on Javanese and Balinese traditions of music and shadow puppetry.

On Saturday, there will be an artist dialogue and workshop.

There will be programming as well related to week-long residencies of three artists on West Campus. Building on the exhibit The Hum of Life: A Thousand and One Tales from Bali which just ended, a subset of the exhibit focused on the sea and the land (nyegara-gunung) will be on display in the 5th floor Southeast Asia gallery of the Johnson Museum, including the acquisition and installation of an ider-ider painting on the symposium theme by Citra Sasmita, one of the visiting artists.