Janji Matogu: A Design Exploration into Places of Remembering and Forgetting

This design project explores the legacy of colonial heritage by examining the entanglement of personal (Micro History) and collective (Macro History) narratives. Starting from archival family records, it investigates how silences surrounding family histories of perpetrators contribute to broader societal amnesia and perpetuate the lasting impact of historical violence. In working with these records, it became evident that silence(s) and absence(s) are not only personal or emotional experiences but also structural conditions shaped by what is remembered, recorded, and made visible. This process revealed a gap in scholarship, particularly in Germany, where decolonial movements have gained momentum. Yet, missionary activities and their broader entanglement with colonialism and other forms of oppression remain underrepresented and understudied within the German culture of remembrance. Another gap that emerged was in the logic of archives themselves, which often upholds dominant narratives while excluding more plural, embodied, and relational ways of knowing. The project seeks to disrupt cycles of historical erasure by transforming static archival records into an embodied archive and opening up space for entangled histories and alternative narratives to emerge. Grounded in a norm-critical and translocal design approach, the project connects creative practices with memory work. It explores the use of dialogical and reflexive methods to foster restorative cultures of collective care and remembrance. Using autoethnographic and ethnographic methods, the project critically examines the implications of familial ties to colonial violence and the ethical responsibilities they entail. A field trip to Sumatra deepened this inquiry through direct engagement with the land and local communities, fostering a more situated and relational understanding of history. Through listening and dialogue practices, it creates a space for entangled histories to unfold as part of a broader process of collective and active remembering. In a transformative way, the project wants to contribute to a culture of remembrance that actively shapes the present and challenges thought patterns that persist today to prevent a repetition of the past.