Interview with Kai Mata, winner of the second edition of the Joint Annual Engaged Artivist Award
The Press Office had the honour to interview the winner of the second edition of the Joint Annual Engaged Artivist Award Kai Mata about her artistic career and the meaning of this prize for her in the future.
Could you tell us more about your background and career as artist and activist (Artivist)?
I am an Indonesian LGBTIQ+ Musician who uses music to amplify the minority experience in Indonesia and abroad. With a particular focus on gender and sexual orientation rights, I am motivated to showcase to LGBTQI+ youth that we are more than the suffering societally imposed upon us. In my six years as a musician, I'm proud to have gained a reputation for turning trials into triumphs, venom into vitality, and death threats into love notes. To counteract current cultural waves of discrimination—from targeted legislation to societal stigma towards sexual minorities—I highlight celebration as rebellion, pride as protest, and joy as resistance.
Who I am and the work I do is the result of the fear and loneliness that surged through me when I was a teenager in Jakarta, frightened at the consequences I would face for liking a girl. The only media I saw regarding LGBTQ+ Indonesians were the public canings of a lesbian couple in Aceh, the invasive speculation on whether certain celebrities were gay (as if that were a major scandal), or the Indonesian Psychiatric Association publicly demonizing LGBTQ identities as a contagious mental illness that needs curing. In the 21st Century, LGBTQ+ Indonesians have been implicated as the cause of ecological disaster, economic failure, and moral erosion. Thus, I vowed to hide my sexual orientation from the world. With no one to turn to, I used songwriting to explore my emotional landscape. It started from a place of pain and isolation. And with enough time, in the solitude of my bedroom, the music shifted to have more acceptance for who I am, even developing into pride.
My goal as an artivist is to be the person I wish I could have seen in the media when I was a lonely teenager, someone who could have shown me we as LGBTQ+ people are worthy of living, worthy of loving, and worthy of being loved.
You obtained the second Joint Annual Artivist Award on Atrocity Prevention and Human Rights. What are your future plans during the given period of artistic research residency both in Italy and US?
During the yearlong residency as the Joint Annual Artivist Award Winner, I am spending my time in Italy and the USA finding grounded inspiration in my next project, where I will expand my scope beyond LGBTQ+ identities to include ethnic minorities and the Indonesian feminist movement. Artistically, I aspire to grow in my ability to merge traditional Indonesian musical elements with the modern landscape of the industry, ensuring that my message remains rooted in Indonesian culture even when taken abroad. Equally as important, being hosted by academic institutions, I am looking forward to representing artivism as an integral part of the solution for change-making. Many of us, including myself, started through grassroots, on-the-ground efforts and a lo-fi ethic. We make up for limited resources with impassioned hearts and booming voices. But our power can be amplified through being included in the strong foundations in traditional institutions like the Global Campus of Human Rights. I feel a responsibility to honor the award with the awareness that the opportunity I have received is a very rare one by existing as a living testimony of the real-world impact and value of artistic activism. Hopefully, my work can encourage other organizations to formally arrange similar awards for even more artivists.
How should we keep strengthening the links between arts and human rights?
Many artists have historically imbued their projects with a hope for world development and a more just society. This has been seen across the globe—whether the rallying cry of Kendrick Lamar's "Alright" igniting U.S. protesters in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement, the poetic, homophonic wordplay of slogans chanted in the 2019 - 2020 Hong Kong Protests, or Michaelangelo's David in resistance against the Medici's political dynasty. Art is typically at the forefront of cultural changes, capable of quickly responding and even igniting change. Thus, creating collaborations between artists and legislative bodies, civil society organizations, and academic institutions creates a mutually beneficial relationship to tackle issues with multiple entry points concurrently. We artists need the work of researchers and academics to deepen the intellectual grounding of our projects, allowing us to bring complex topics and issues in relatable, emotive ways that the public at large will seek out.
Could you give a message to the students, professors, alumni, staff and partners of the global campus for human rights?
I am grateful that the Global Campus of Human Rights has recognized the impact and scope of my work, especially since I operate outside of traditional structures of change-making. Although I don't speak for all artivists, I know many of us want to be of service, as I know you are too. I encourage us all to reach out to each other and collaborate across disciplines and fields, as a united effort can propel our impact beyond what we can do as individuals. I believe a major aspect of what has bestowed me the title of Joint Annual Engaged Artivist Award Winner is my current lack of embarrassment in approaching others for advice, collaborations, and offering my resources. I want to remind us all to widen our networks and actively seek out people we can both be supported by and provide support for. We all hold influence and power to be change-makers in our lives.
For more information contact our Press and Communications PR Offices:
Elisa Aquino – Isotta Esposito – Francesca Sante
pressoffice@gchumanrights.org - communications@gchumanrights.org
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