With Sumber Alam (“source of nature”), Bagus Pandega presents his first institutional solo exhibition in Europe, transforming Kunsthalle Basel into a fragile yet intricate circuit of machines, signals, and living matter. Spanning multiple galleries, the exhibition unfolds as a choreographed sequence in which sculptural, sonic, and technological works speak to one another.
Rooted in field research in Indonesia, Sumber Alam responds to the profound environmental upheavals brought about by palm oil expansion and nickel mining. Pandega translates these extractive dynamics into poetic, interactive installations: a plan-controlled erasing machine; a sound installation carved from wood obtained through deforestation; and a mining simulator that echoes cycles of growth, erosion, memory, and erasure.
In this ecosystem, industrial materials and biofeedback signals are not inert. Nickel pulses with energy, plants trigger motion, and carved wood reverberates with sound, animating the presence of nonhuman agents within human-designed systems. Rather than offering a fixed narrative, Pandega constructs a loop of energies between machine and nature, progress and destruction, asking how we might imagine futures led not by extraction, but by nature itself.
The production of this exhibition is supported by M Art Foundation, extending its long-standing support of Asian artists and, in recent years, a focus on Southeast Asia — here marking its first collaboration with an Indonesian artist. This support also reflects the Foundation’s founders’ background in gaming, which resonates with Pandega’s system-based and interactive practice.
Photos: © Photography by Maruto Ardi. Courtesy of the artist and ROH, Jakarta.
Bagus Pandega (b. 1985, Jakarta, Indonesia) works primarily through installation, often challenging pre-conditioned relationships between objects and viewers. He assembles electronic systems as modular units, incorporating voice recorders, cassette and record players, lamps, and circuit boards into works activated by movement, sound, and light.
Pandega studied sculpture at the Bandung Institute of Technology, where he earned his BA (2008) and MFA (2015). His recent solo exhibitions include Stomata at Esplanade Concourse, Singapore (2024–25); 〇 at ROH, Jakarta (2024); A Pervasive Rhythm at Yamamoto Gendai, Tokyo (2018); Random Black at ROH Projects, Jakarta (2016); and A Monument That Tells Anything at Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta (2015). Group presentations include Bangkok Art Biennale (2024), Frieze Seoul (2022), documenta fifteen (2022), the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial at QAGOMA, Brisbane (2021–22), Art Basel Hong Kong (2015, 2023), and Amsterdam Light Festival (2017).
