On the Way to
the Factory
Artist | Sharo Liang
Participants | Azizah, Nadya, Suci Support by | SUAVEART, Jatiwangi Art Factory, LoveGood Production, National Culture and Arts Foundation
Special thanks | Elgea Balzarie, Laelatul Azizah, Illa Syukrillah Syarief, Prabowo Setyadi, Rifayanti Adawiyah, Yipei Lee.
Duration | Mar. - May. 2022 Location | Jatiwangi Art Factory, Jatiwangi, Majalengka, Indonesia.
“Don’t resist the Sun” is the first thing I learned in Jatiwangi, it means in the hot equator countryside you should live and stay in the shade. However, affected by globalization, many people decide to devote themselves to urban life, which also changes the villages a lot. All trifling things in rural areas become everyone’s shared memory. Very different from the city, in west Java, Jatiwangi the relationship between people is very intimate. This project aims to explore the silhouette of the rural, and also understand how Jatiwnagi use their own way to participate in the process of globalization.
”On the Way to The Factory '' focuses on the social relationship affected by industrialization, and the shifting identity of the individuals through the changing landscape from a small village into a factory town. In the past ten years, many foreign processing manufactures came, seventy percent of the young labor, especially women, are devoting into the global fashion production chain, which makes the village face the changes of their social structure and for their own identity. In this project, women worker are invited as a collaborators to participate a series of workshop, through listening to each others story to understand the changing life pattern of Jatiwangi, through narrating, drawing and writing their daily life working in the factory, we translate the experience into manifesto for each individual, and explore different ways to be seen. In the end, the work were presented on the way to the factory, to become part of others' daily scenery.
Fashion industrial factories around Jatiwangi. Drawn by Illa.
“Don't resist the Sun”，是我在 Jatiwangi 學到的第一件事，指的是在炎熱的赤道鄉村要適宜地待在陰涼下過生活。然而，在全球化影響下，許多人在不同時間點紛紛投入都市生活，村落也逐漸改變。鄉村的點點滴滴曾是許多人曾有的共同記憶，而在西爪哇的Jatiwangi村子中，人與人的關係也像空氣般的自然，與都市生活南轅北轍。而這個計畫主要的目的是去探索西爪哇的鄉村生活，了解他們如何用鄉村的方式來參與全球化的過程。
《工作的路上（On the Way to The Factory）》旨在探討 Jatiwangi 村莊經歷工業化而改變的社會關係，透過個人從鄉村到工廠的路徑來呈現他們身分的轉變 。過去十年以來，許多外國加工廠進駐之下，該地鄉村七成的年輕勞動力投入全球化的生產線，使鄉村面臨社會結構以及個人身份認知上的改變。這個研究採用田野調查和工作坊的型式，從個人敘事出發來了解鄉村逐漸被改變的生活模式。計劃中將以鄉村工廠裡的勞工為主體，以每天上班經過的地景為舞台，透過參與者對日常生活的想像以及描繪，練習用不同的方法被看見，並融入他人以及自己的日常風景。
▶︎ Workshop Development
We encourage participants to join the workshop by playing with different media, and asked them to prepare a photo of a site / location / corner on the way they commute nearly everyday, which they emotionally attached to or have special meaning to them.
Through different method, such as shooting photos, writing, mapping, narrating and listening, they gradually reveal the relationship between themselves and the location they choose, which is an important process for self identification. As a concept, this workshop encourage them to imagine the time when commuting in between their home and the factory as an empty canvas, waiting for them to think about what they want to put on and what message they want to convey to the “spectators/other factory worker”. In the end, we provide white fabric for participants to condense their previous notes into a short sentence or picture, and later hang them on the location they chose in the beginning. Materialized the metaphor and turn them into words on the banner. (for more details please scroll down and visit the publication made for this project.)
“Just wanna be happy without any
... I want to show the world the truth”
— By Nadya
“My morning is too early, and night is too late.”
— By Azizah
“Love your job.
Even though it doesn’t make you rich,
it gives you a life”
— By Suci
For more stories & research please visit ➔
Publication pdf.