Pakta Ledak / The Pact of the Blast, 1h 8’, 2025
Irwan Ahmett (b. 1975) and Tita Salina (b. 1973) are a self-taught artist duo based in Jakarta. Their initial work is to place the imagination through performative intervention amid the chaotic public space of megapolitan Jakarta, which faces the dilemma of uncontrolled urbanization and pollution. Along with the development of networks both in art and activists circles so as to encourage their artistic practice progressing towards a deeper and thicker circumtances.
They are currently working on a long-term project related to geopolitical turmoil in the Ring of Fire - Pacific Rim, the most prone region to natural disasters as well as traumatic consequences of the persistent ideological violence. They utilize their high mobility as the main vehicle participating in residency programs, research, field study and exhibitions especially in specific areas,which are paradoxical such as heavenly yet deadly beautiful places on earth. Irwan and Tita aim to find answers to planetary anxieties about human existence through an evolutionary perspective and to produce knowledge through arts related to injustice, humanity and the urgent condition of our planet.
Their public art installation and performances intervene with communities to narrate civic, political, and ecological power struggles. Since 2014, Salina and Ahmett have been working on projects around the Pacific Rim Ring of Fire – regions prone to natural disasters with persistent colonial violence, political repression, urban development issues, and profiteering of ecological resources. The artist duo conduct research, field study, and residencies to investigate injustice related to micro- and macro-environments.
Ahmett and Salina have exhibited their works in international institutions and biennales such as Bangkok Art Biennale, Bangkok, Thailand (2020), the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (2021), NTU Centre of Contemporary Art Singapore (2019), Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland (2017), Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2016), Asian Art Biennale, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan (2015), Biennale Jogja, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2015) and the Singapore Biennale (2013).