In 1602, the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and became a dominant European power for almost 200 years. After ages of trade, the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies as a nationalised colony which was one of the most valuable colonies under European rule and contributed to Dutch global prominence in spice and cash crop trade in the 19th and early 20th century. The Dutch exploited the native population and implemented a strong colonial social order that was based on rigid racial and social structures. The population was roughly divided into four groups: Europeans, Easterners - such as Chinese and Japanese landowners, Indo-Europeans (the Indische community) and the indigenous people. Each group had its own status, with associated rights and obligations. In the early 20th century, when nationalism globally arose, local intellectuals began developing the concept of ‘Indonesia’ as a nation state which set the stage for an independence movement.

The Indo-European, or Indische, community thought differently about Dutch rule than the local, Indonesian population. The latter rejected Dutch presence completely, while the Indische community stood open for collaboration with the Dutch. During the Second World War, the Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies from 1942 until 1945. Both Dutch and Indo-European prisoners of war were imprisoned and tortured in Japanese internment camps, as well as in separate camps which existed for Dutch and Indo-European civilians. After the Second World War, on 17 August 1945, Soekarno declared Indonesian independence together with Mohammad Hatta. This resulted in a four-year guerrilla warfare for Indonesian independence against Dutch colonial rule in which Indonesian nationalists fought against the Dutch forces and pro-Dutch civilians. This was also the historical period known in Dutch history as ‘Politionele Acties’ (‘Police Actions’) in reference to the two major military offensives undertaken by the Netherlands on Java and Sumatra against the Republic of Indonesia. After four years of war, the Netherlands officially acknowledged Indonesia’s independence in 1949. Between 1945 and 1968, more than 300,000 of Indische civilians (Indo-Europeans) migrated from the former Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands.

‘Once I dreamt that I walked through my old dollhouse, empty but full of atmosphere, waking up with a story, of which the words got lost’ | A post-colonial family affair by Eva Gonggrijp

Eva Gonggrijp’s father was born in Surabaya, Indonesia. During the turmoil of the Second World War, he and his mother—Eva’s grandmother—were imprisoned in Japanese internment camps. Fortunately, they survived the war and, after liberation, returned to the Netherlands. Eva’s grandmother remarried then, leaving behind her painful past in Indonesia, confining it to the elusive realms of distant memory and the unspeakable.

For Eva, growing up, her grandmother’s house in The Hague was a sanctuary, remaining always the same throughout her early life as she moved from place to place with her parents. When Eva was a young girl, her grandmother began building her a dollhouse. It was modeled after the old colonial house in Indonesia but possessed the atmosphere of the simple apartment in The Hague. It was true-to-life, yet reflected an idealized, though now faded, glory. When her grandmother passed away, Eva inherited her family archive, which included photographs, films, letters, and records of her grandmother’s piano playing. These objects revealed secrets which only hinted at the true depth of her family’s experiences.

One morning, years later, Eva awoke from a dream that had taken hold of her. In the dream, she walked through her life-sized dollhouse. The surreal atmosphere brought memories back to her with the immediacy only a dream can manage—its haunting emptiness, communicating the silence of everything she had never been told: of dreams and loss. Eva, a visual artist, recreated this dream experience through her work On entre. The VR experience allows the viewer to step into Eva’s dream, which brings the past vividly into the present, breathing life into distant times and places, through allowing the participant to experience them directly.

The VR will be exhibited in Arti, but the headset is only one part of a larger immersive installation which incorporates different scents, temperatures, and wind during the VR experience, and takes place in a black box with a designed interior.