"KEMERDEKAAN ITU NASI. DIMAKAN JADI TAI."
-Wiji Thukul (1982)
CREDIT: Fajar Grinanda
Cirebon, August 15, 1945. A group of underground youth in Alun-Alun Kejaksan proclaimed Indonesian independence two days before it was proclaimed in Jakarta. Yet this event has never occupied an equal place in the visual archives and official narratives of the modern nation-state. Today, it survives only as a weathered monument.
Jakarta, August 17, 1945. Before the sun had risen too high, a hand-sewn red-and-white cotton flag was hoisted on a bamboo pole in the yard of a house at Jalan Pegangsaan Timur No.56.