The Epoch of Mapalucene
Natasha Tontey
2021
In the Indonesian province of North Sulawesi, the stone-revering Minahasa were organised according to the gift economy of Mapalus, which was based on volunteerism, kinship with nature and mutual aid. According to native cosmology, the first person ever to exist was a woman who gave birth through a stone. With the presence of colonialists from the West and their interactions with the locals, the Minahasans evolved to a stone-based exchange system that was informed by a mixture of their ancient spiritual beliefs and the Christian-influenced capitalist ideas. The Epoch of Mapalucene explores the dynamics of Minahasa worldview through the perspective of digital culture, speculating on its potential for imagining an alternative society based on a reciprocity that brings together animate and inanimate realms.
Natasha Tontey (b. 1989, Jakarta, Indonesia), Natasha Tontey is a Minahasan artist based between Yogyakarta and Jakarta. Her practice explores the speculative mythologies surrounding “manufactured fear,” imagining futures from the perspective of marginalized entities rather than dominant institutions. Working through video and performance, she merges folklore with science fiction to propose alternative worlds of resistance and care. Her work explores tenderness amid terror, inviting viewers to imagine affective relations beyond fear. Tontey has exhibited at Museum MACAN (Jakarta), Auto Italia London, the Singapore Biennale, Istanbul Biennale, and BFI London Film Festival among others. She received the 2024 Han Nefkens Foundation Video Production Grant and 2020 HASH Award from ZKM.