Tongkonan Machine

  Tongkonan Machine, 2016

  70 x 70 x 40 cm

   Bamboo, paper and parts for step motor mobilization.

Tongkonan are of the traditional ancestral houses of the Torajan people, Sulawesi, Indonesia which give this kinetic sculpture both inspiration and form.

In the present day they are still used and continuously restituted in the belief that they contain the spirit of their ancestors. It is through the tongkonan that Torajans relate to their ancestors.

In 2016, April; just after the total eclipse of the sun in Palu, Indonesia, we had the opportunity to travel through the middle Sulawesi to the magical soil of Toraja, where you can almost breathe the ancestoral spirits through the daily rituals and see the transforming views of tea gardens and coffee plantations of the high wetlands situated among the unique architecture.