Legendary Indonesian art collective Taring Padi, founded in 1998 by art students and activists in Yogyakarta, will present a two-day workshop focused on the production of life-size protest puppets, known in Indonesian as "wayang kardus". The workshop will take place at Prague's SVĚTOVA 1 gallery and is organized by tranzit.cz in preparation for this year's Matter of Art Biennial.

For nearly 30 years, the Taring Padi group has supported people around the world in their struggle for social justice. Large-scale banners, posters, prints, engaged music, murals, exhibitions, parades and cardboard puppets are a key part of Taring Padi's artistic output, which the collective sees as a tool for  "education, agitation and organizing". In street protests, the puppets visually enlarge the crowd, provide shade from the sun or offer some protection from the police during demonstrations.

The workshop Stop Violence Against Humanity is based on the linocut print and publication 6065, a project that commemorates the tragic 60th anniversary of the 1965-1966 Indonesian genocide. After a failed coup attempt, the Indonesian military took power in the country, which subsequently began persecuting unarmed leftist political groups with the help of the United States. Over the next few years, nearly 2 million people were killed and hundreds of thousands were imprisoned without trial.

60 years after the massacres, Taring Padi asks a timely question: "What will the future look like if the fascists win?" and tries to imagine a world in which justice exists. The collective sees history as an important lesson in the lengths to which powerful groups are willing to go to stop a movement fighting for a better world. The main message of the workshop is to remind us that it is up to us to learn from the past and not let similar crimes happen again. 

In addition to making the puppets themselves, the workshop will also include a group discussion on the topic in a local context. Taring Padi will guide the participants through a collaborative process of deciding the meaning and narrative that the resulting puppets will carry. The outcome of the workshop will become part of the Matter of Art 2026 exhibition in the Great Hall of the National Gallery, after which the puppets will return to their authorship to serve as tools in street protests and direct actions.

The Taring Padi collective was founded in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta in 1998 by a group of women artists and activists involved in a socio-political uprising against the corrupt and violent dictatorship of General Suharto. Taring Padi's mission is to use art as a tool of political resistance, solidarity and pedagogy for a social and democratic society, and to work in solidarity with communities and grassroots activist groups on issues of environmental and social justice. Its work is characterised by the collective creation of "wayang kardus" (cardboard puppets), murals, large-scale banners, sculptures and street theatre actions.

Dates: 29–30 May, 12pm–6pm

To attend the workshop, registration is required. Registration is available for individual days or for both days.