As part of Museum MACAN’s Children’s Art Space commission series, Beradu Padu is an installation by Ruth Marbun. The project explores the twists and turns of information that continuously shifts and overlaps without pause.

The rapid flow of information driven by technology has become an unavoidable part of modern life. We are all connected by information that arrives and disappears so quickly that we often have little time to process it. At the same time, we can become increasingly isolated within algorithmic systems that shape our perspectives in ever more uniform ways.

Within this dynamic, the project invites us to reflect on a number of questions:

• How do we make sense of change and come to terms with uncertainty?

• Amid pressures toward standardization in the name of “progress” and “unity,” is there still room to celebrate diversity?

• To what extent are we aware of our ability to engage with information critically and on our own terms?

• How do we take part in broader narratives while preserving our sense of self?

• How can we sharpen the curiosity and persistence that are increasingly eroded by the constant stream of information?

• Beradu Padu invites audiences to take a step back and consider the complexities of our time—with all its changes, differences, and uncertainties—with sensitivity and curiosity rather than judgment or rejection, within the simple setting of a play space.

Through a process of “mass collage,” participants are invited to assemble black-and-white printed images using colored tape. This process symbolizes the ways information comes together and our role in creating meaning from it. Each participant’s contribution is then combined with those of others to form a large-scale installation that transforms—and brings to life—the gallery space.

The installation created over the course of the project will be developed by the artist as an archive and/or incorporated into future works after the project concludes.

Collaborator