Rakyat Pasti Menang

Ibraaz presents an exhibition by Taring Padi, an Indonesian collective of art workers founded in Yogyakarta in 1998 by a group of progressive art students and activists. 

Rakyat Pasti Menang, Bahasa Indonesia for ‘the people united will never be defeated’, brings together major works and archival material from the collective’s nearly thirty-year history.  

The exhibition takes its title from the protest chants heard during the sociopolitical upheaval that accompanied Indonesia’s Reformasi movement in the late 1990s. Rooted in the historical moment from which Taring Padi emerged, the phrase continues to resonate today, demonstrating how the collective has carried its spirit of solidarity and resistance into new political and cultural contexts. 

The show will unfold over a series of changing displays featuring Taring Padi’s large-scale banners. Alongside these presentations, workshops centred on the collective’s practices of puppetry and printmaking, together with a public programme of talks and activations, will explore their approach to art as a tool for political education, collective authorship, and mobilisation. 

Hosted in the Majlis, a space central to Ibraaz’s vision of dialogue and exchange, Rakyat Pasti Menang reflects a shared commitment to culture as a site of collective imagination and social transformation. 

About Taring Padi: 

Taring Padi was founded in Yogyakarta in 1998 by a group of progressive art students and activists in response to the sociopolitical upheaval of the Reformasi era. 

The collective’s commitment to anti-militarism and anti-fascism is informed by their experiences under a brutal military dictatorship. Since their founding, Taring Padi’s artistic practice has been an integral part of sociopolitical and cultural actions, supporting marginalized communities and various social groups in Indonesia and globally. 

Their works and acts of solidarity take the form of collective creations such as large-scale banners used in street protests, woodcut prints, posters, cardboard puppets, music and performance. Their artistic mediums are reproducible and can be widely distributed, founded on their collective principle of art as a tool for education, activism, and social transformation.

Recent exhibitions include “People’s Liberation” at Sale Docks in Venice in 2026, as well as “Organise – Educate – Agitate” with Cantadora Gallery in Rome in 2025. In 2024, Taring Padi presented the exhibition "Tanah Tumpah Darah / The Land Where We Spill Our Blood to Defend It" at the Griffith University Art Museum in Brisbane, showcasing a banner created in collaboration with the First Nations art collective ProppaNow. They also held a major exhibition at Framer Framed in Amsterdam, "Tanah Merdeka / Liberated Land" (2023), featuring a large banner made in collaboration with the Brazilian Jewish diaspora organization Casa do Povo and the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST). In 2022, Taring Padi took part in documenta fifteen, presenting two decades of artefacts related to direct political action. Titled "Bara Solidaritas / Flame of Solidarity", the presentation in Kassel, included over 1,000 cardboard puppets created in collaboration with communities in Indonesia, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, and Australia, who participated in collective workshops.