Jiwa Kala is a one-hour multidisciplinary work that transcends the boundaries between a music concert, ritual, and ecological reflection. Within the urgent context of climate change, the work reimagines time not as a linear sequence, but as a living entity, breathing through sound, moving through bodies, and flickering through shadows. Time here holds the imprints of ecological destruction, rising global temperatures, and invisible loss, yet it also carries the possibility of healing. Blending Western and Indonesian experimental music, dance, shadow theatre, and film, the performance creates an immersive experience that invites the audience to feel the crisis rather than merely understand it.
Rooted in Javanese mythology, Jiwa Kala invokes two feminine forces as guardians of natural balance: Kanjeng Ratu Kidul, Goddess of the ocean now threatened by global warming, and Dewi Sri, symbol of the Earth’s fertility, increasingly fragile under human exploitation. Through this symbolism, the work becomes a contemporary offering, an artistic sajen (offering) that simultaneously mourns and nurtures the relationship between humans and the natural world.
Jiwa Kala is not merely a concert, but a journey across time and consciousness: a call to pause, to listen again to the pulse of the Earth, and to ask do we still have time to realign before everything is truly lost, and where will we run when the world is in the fire?
The work is divided into 10 segments:
- Kemuda Djiwa presents the meeting of ocean and mountain as a sacred realm that invokes two feminine forces guarding the balance of nature: Kanjeng Ratu Kidul, sovereign of the sea, and Dewi Sri, goddess of rice and sustenance. Through this symbolism, the work becomes a contemporary offering an artistic offering (sajen) that mourns and nurtures the relationship between humans and the natural world, flowing across time from myth into the era of Mataram Islam and resonating once more during the reign of Mangkunegara X.
- Ranum, Arr. Daniel Leibovic. Ranum represents the smile of the goddesses who guard life, receiving offerings with joy while radiating love and desire that sustains existence. Her beauty glows softly, like flowers just beginning to bloom under the light of life, as the goddesses’ generosity bestows abundant harvests of fish and rice.
- Bulan Sabit, Arr. Daniel Leibovic. The Crescent Moon is a symbol of Mother Earth’s smile, even while wounded by human wrongdoing. Yet as a mother, she always protects and restores herself, rising with a strength that no one can hinder.
- Meratus depicts the greed that leads humans to seize and use the earth as property. Beneath these tendencies lingers compassion, humanity, and inner awareness. The question is whether love and empathy can still endure or have faded completely into the darkness of greed.
- Ketiga Dawa (drought) is a portrait of ecological destruction manifested in prolonged drought, arid lands, and forest fires that consume life. It raises a fundamental question: is there still hope for humans to heal the Earth, or will we wait for the Earth to restore itself in its own way, with or without us?
- Wangi / Amongis an expression of sorrow when humanity can no longer offer sacred offerings to the goddesses who guard the balance of the Earth, a sign that the Earth is unwell and unable to yield its harvest as it once did.This piece is reflection and a quiet prayer to restore the Earth’s dignity and revive the harmony that has been lost.
- Sesaji Rusak, Arr. Benjamin Broening. This work is a depiction of destroyed offerings, mirroring an Earth polluted by plastic waste and human-caused destruction. From this ruin rises the wrath of the goddesses who guard balance, a reminder of the fragile harmony that has been broken.
- Sentherewean is a message from the goddess, communicating the existential importance of protecting the environment. It reminds us that the hope for the future depends on instilling wisdom and ethical understanding in children.
- Hujan (Rain), Arr. Jacob Garchik. This piece begins by depicting in sound the smell of rain touching the Earth after a long drought, bringing freshness and new life.This fragrance instills hope and inspires us to rebuild and restore the Earth’s fertility.
- Kodok Frogs). As an “indicator species,” frogs are a manifestation of the Earth’s safety, their song a celebration of fertility and the blossoming of life.