Surealis Yogya and other surrealist moments in Indonesia in the 20th century

This entry explores the history of Surrealist work in Indonesia in the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, with an emphasis on the Yogya surealis group of Yogyakarta. In so doing, it raises critical challenges to historical narratives of Surrealism that exclude developments outside of Paris and the interwar years. It proposes a conception of Indonesian Surrealism as defined by a “cluster of qualities,” which may be alternately resonant with other variants of international Surrealism, such as an embrace of ambiguity and juxtaposition, or specific to the cultural and political history of contemporary Indonesia, such as its responses to the situation of post-colonial dynamics and its explorations of metaphysical spirituality.