#jathilan

Jathilan Epilepsy

6.XII.2019 - 6.I.2020

Solo show @PamojaGoods in Kraków, Poland

Instalation consist of:                                                                                        Batik on cotton, Pvc coated bamboo, spray on wall                                                                                                 

The exhibition is result of a residency that i held at the turn of January and February 2019 in Sesama ( located in Yogyakarta, Java ) thanks to the support of the RazemPamoja Foundation.

6.XII.2019 - 6.I.2020

Pictures by Arek Dec

Small fragment of conversation i had with Adam Gruba, Sesamas CEO

A: (...)My fascination and what I am still looking for in Java, is the spiritual state, Javanese mysticism - which has many faces. One of them is trance dance - jathilan. I showed Stach the places where these ritual performances take place, during which dancers are possed by souls that are no longer in our dimension.

S: I've always had the impression that someone in the audience is going to start trembling soon, and indeed the lady sitting next to me got suddenly a slight attack of epilepsy after staring at the trance for hours.

Raja Kirik - Phantasmagoria Of Jathilan

I'm completely fucking stunned. This is the best thing I've ever heard maybe. Ok I've been saying "I don't know shit about this kind of music" lately but I actually do know a little about Javanese music and I'm more or less aware of Jathilan. I'm just gonna quote the Bandcamp page

"Jathilan is an acronym of “Jarane jan tjil-thilan”, which translates to a horse that dances irregularly. The current form of Jathilan developed after the Java War (fought between Javanese rebels and the colonial Dutch empire from 1825 to1830) as a folk practise to grapple with the defeat by the Dutch Empire and the devastation caused by the civil war between the Javanese population and the Javanese aristocracy who supported the Dutch. In Jathilan people use stick horses made of bamboo as a form of appreciation as well as an expression of support for rebel leader Prince Diponegoro's horsemens who fought bravely against the Dutch colonial forces. Despite the actual defeat of the rebels, Jathilan itself always depicts an imaginary victory of the local rebel cavalry against demons, monsters, or the colonisers. This heroic performance therefore has multiple purposes: to entertain, to encourage, to heal, and to unite people against oppression."

Rajah Kirik have drawn a straight line between this Javanese dance music and western electronic dance music. The chants and thrumming rhythms of Jathilan are blended with hardstyle, tribal, and trance music to create an incredible blend of styles. I can't accurately describe the intensity of this album. It is chaotic and violent and it is completely hypnotic. The intensity ramps up as the album goes on and by the end the speed and aggression of the music becomes overwhelming. It perfectly recreates in the listener the trance like state that Jathilan is meant to induce in its dancers. Phantasmagoria Of Jathilan is a wild intense experience that you must listen to.