Gegerboyo was established in 2016 in Indonesia. Gegerboyo is a collaborative project between Vendy Methodos, EnkaNkmr, Dian Suci Rahmawati, Ipeh Nur and Prihatmoko Moki. Gegerboyo is much inspired by traditions of Javanese culture, urban culture, and the relation between and the correlation with the current socio-political phenomena.
The series of Tan Hana Dharma Mangrwa is a fragment from one of the most important sentences in Kakawin Sutasoma, the work of Mpu Tantular, in the 1400s, where Mohammad Yamin proposed its first fragment as the country’s motto, Bhineka Tunggal Ika. Bhineka Tunggal Ika (that one is diverse), Tan Hana Dharma Mangrwa (no forked truth or truth is unambiguous), so that is the full version of the motto. Bhineka Tunggal Ika shows the importance of tolerance and the Majapahit Kingdom’s pluralism at the time, particularly tolerance between religions. ‘That one is diverse’ could be interpreted that in one Majapahit Kingdom, there were various beliefs, groups and tribes, and ‘there is no forked truth or truth is unambiguous’ shows that those different faiths, groups, and tribes of Majapahit Kingdom believed and united in one truth, which in this case is Metaphysical Truth and could be equated with the concept of Human Truth (anthropon dikaiosune) – concept of truth that emphasises people’s virtue to the others and in which also reflects his virtue to his God.
The words ‘mangrwa’ or ‘forking, becoming two, or ambiguous’ (‘rwa’ means ‘two’) is absorbing, for number two itself was frequently flourishing Majapahit’s history; for example, two wangsa or two royal dynasties (Rajasa and Sinelir), two royal religions (Shaivism and Buddhism), two colors of imperial flag (red and white), and the philosophical dualism concept of rwa bhineda (two opposites) –duality that is balancing each other, such as: men and women, day and night, good and bad, birth and death, and so forth. Likewise, Modern life flourished with dualistic phenomena, for example, strife between two opposite political groups, matches between two football clubs, and friction between two different sects of religion; each of them has its own respective pennant, and they are balancing and complementing each other and unified in one; the two political groups fight for one country, the two different football clubs fight in one match, and those sects blame one another under one religion. The concept of Bhineka Tunggal Ika as a unity is already reflected in Gegerboyo as a body of collaborative project which successfully unites the diversity of its members –who artistically has different character of visualisation from one another, but they are one, under the same pennant, and it is Gegerboyo.
Selected exhibition:
2022 Convergence group exhibition, Redbase Art Gallery, Chippendale, SydneyÂ
2019 Tan Hana Dharma Mangrwa solo exhibition, Redbase Foundation, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2019 Redefining Chapter group exhibition, Redbase Foundation, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
