De/re-constructing Archives Residency

Images: Virliany Rizqia, Feysa Poetry, Divasio Suryawan

As Museum Nyah Lasem faces increasing pressure to align with standardised conservation practices, fundamental questions arise: Whose memory is being preserved? Who bears responsibility for its care? And how can that memory remain grounded in the local community while entering broader national narratives?

Output

Museum Nyah Lasem will host a one-month residency in which the selected facilitator will establish a temporary “school” in collaboration with local participants. The program will include workshops, seminars, and discussions. At the end of the residency, participants (or "students") will have the opportunity to collaboratively produce either an exhibition or a publication.

EXPERT COLLABORATORS

Haffata Zahra

W. Haffata Yahfitu Zahra is a historian specializing in women’s history in contemporary Indonesia, with a strong interest in humanities-based applied research. She integrates public history approaches to bridge academic inquiry and broader public engagement. Her previous work includes a conceptual study on the Indonesian Historiography Data Management System within global dynamics (2020) and a proposal for Cross-country Maritime Tourism through Nusantara Marine Wealth for the Pekan Budaya Nasional (2017). As a co-founder of Retrospect Nusantara, she actively contributes to the development of sustainable history production and dissemination through various public history initiatives.

Luka Yuanyuan Yang

Luka Yuanyuan Yang, a Museum Forward collaborator based in the UK, will join the program through a residency at Museum Nyah Lasem in November 2025. Her recent project at ESEA Contemporary (UK) centers on archiving personal histories and exploring cultural translation—themes that closely resonate with Nyah Lasem’s archives and heritage. Yang’s practice addresses diasporic experience, recollection, and the space between fact and fiction, as seen in her acclaimed film Chinatown Cha-Cha and her book Dance in Herland. Through her ESEA event Echoes of Elsewhere, she has articulated an archival approach that is both personal and universal. During the residency, she will also engage deeply with the Lasem community and local context, and will present and share these outcomes in this session.

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MUSEUM FORWARD 2025

Open Call for Indonesian experts

This year's EUNIC initiative seeks to facilitate knowledge & experiences exchange through connecting diverse museums with collaborators and experts, as well as realize a co-creation through hands-on experiences & collaborative efforts between stakeholders in the creative sector. This is intended as a response to the feedback, insights and urgencies identified by the local museum participants in the last year’s forum. Following the first open call—focusing on Indonesian museums—now we are looking for the Indonesian museum experts and cultural heritage professionals!

As a collaborator and facilitator, you will closely work with Galeri Lokananta, Museum Perkebunan Indonesia, and Museum Nyah Lasem also international experts on an assigned project in an intensive, intimate, productive setting & longer term.

Please fill out the form in English.

MUSEUM FORWARD is co-created & co-organized collaboratively by: Goethe-Institut Indonesien, Embassy of Austria in Indonesia, European Union Delegation in Indonesia, Institut Français Indonesia, Embassy of Ireland in Indonesia, Istituto Italiano de Cultura, Erasmus Huis, Embassy of Poland in Indonesia, Embassy of Spain in Indonesia, British Council Indonesia.