Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I examine the Papua pavilion at the Taman Mini Indonesia through a diachronic comparison of the transformations that occurred over the last years. The alterations are framed in terms of urgency in reconfiguring the park quaint ideological and imaginative bases in the present time.

Paper long abstract:

This article expands the postmodern analyses of the theme park Taman Mini Indonesia Indah. As part of the Suharto regime's monumental nation-building relics, the park displays the image of the Indonesian archipelago and its provinces in an iconic, reductionist, hegemonic and ahistorical manner. The spatiotemporal dimension, as noted by John Pemberton, is a salient feature of the park, since the blend of various historical signs and simulacra signifies a singular a-temporality grounded in an ever-lasting present. Nowadays, nonetheless, in a political ambience in which decentralisation of central state power has destabilised the original paradigm of Indonesian nationhood, changes are noticeable in the Taman Mini too, above all in such peripheral pavilions as the one of Papua.

In this article, I examine the Papua pavilion through a diachronic comparison of the transformations that occurred over the last few years. The alterations are framed in terms of urgency in reconfiguring the quaint ideological and imaginative bases of the Taman Mini project in the present time.