On several occasions, Divisi 62 has been kind enough to share their musical gifts with us. We've conversed with the collective for Globetrotter's original "Variations in Sound" series, and we have also worked with member Django at one of our Elevation parties.
Django and two of his fellow Indonesia-based producers Harsya Wahono and Randy MP founded Divisi 62 as a platform for their signature sounds. Their refreshing blend of electronics and Indonesian traditional instruments have brought them to prestigious stages in Berlin, Gent, Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
So it's such a pleasant surprise for us to meet a new side of Divisi 62: filmmakers.
Earlier in July, the collective were commissioned by art research platform XING, which partnered with A.I. Gallery to curate a project. In line with XING's focus on Southeast Asia, the project, an online film festival titled "Nameless. echoes, spectres, hisses," invites six works from artists around the region.
Running from June 29 to July 9, the festival included a submission from Indonesia's Divisi 62, a 5-minute short called "Kabut Zaman".
Loosely translated as "The mist of ages" or "The age of mist," "Kabut Zaman" features abstract images of landscapes, spices and rock formations. It's murky and unexplainable, just like a fog clouding our vision.
The film is a spectacle of visuals; of distorted textures of human cells, atomic bombs and planets. At the core of "Kabut Zaman", there is indeed the topic about the space, or rather the Western's monopolization of it. Divisi 62 believes that decades of colonialism has led into "Global South’s exclusion from the conversation on the promise of space, space colonization, and space mining."
Likening colonialism to he ghost of the past, Divisi 62 brings out a touch of Southeast Asia's mysticism in the music. The collective gives out their best here, utilizing metallic objects and instruments that make up the audio that accompanies the abstract visuals.
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