From 31 May to 11 June 2026, a Ukrainian-Indonesian art project dedicated to ecological memory, ritual, and the relationship between people and the land took place in the Banyuwangi region of East Java. The collaboration between Ukrainian and Indonesian artists resulted in the performance In Flux: No Land for Mothers, developed directly within the local context of Banyuwangi and presented outdoors among the rice fields to an audience of around 80 local residents and members of the artistic community. 

The project began with research into Seblang, a ritual practice preserved in the village of Bakungan. On 31 May and 1 June, the participants attended pre-ritual events, joined processions, observed the main ritual, and met and spoke with its performer. The team sought to understand the role of the ritual in shaping relationships between the community, the land, memory, and ancestors. 

In the subsequent creative process, the experience of researching Seblang entered into dialogue with the Ukrainian traditions of Vodinnia Kusta and Rusalii rituals. The team did not seek direct equivalences between these practices or attempt to create an artificial “shared ritual.” Instead, the different cultural traditions became points of departure for a conversation about the relationship between people and the land and previous generations, the role of women’s presence in ritual and spiritual practices, and the ways knowledge is transmitted through the body, music, repeated action, and collective memory. 

It was from this dialogue that the concept of In Flux: No Land for Mothers emerged. 

From 3 to 9 June, work on the performance continued at Studio Klampisan. A separate stage of cultural and professional exchange took place on 9 June at Studio Musik Damar Art and Sumberayu Market. The participants introduced one another to their artistic practices, discussed approaches to working with traditional music and performance, improvised together, and selected musical instruments and stage materials for the final work. 

The final performance featured Abi Muhammad Latif, Dayu Prismawati, Yuliia Mykolaychuk, Yuliia Nahrebelna, Lista Dewi Ramadhaningrum, Bunga Shintia, Moh. Rofayat, Nabila Fitri Handayani, Achzanq Ilhamy, and Hewodn. 

The project became a space not only for the creation of an artistic work, but also for sustained professional and cultural exchange. Through the research of Seblang, engagement with the Ukrainian traditions of Vodinnia Kusta and Rusalii, and collaborative work with music, the body, and the local landscape, the team created a work that approaches the ecological crisis as a crisis of relationships — between people and the land, between generations, and between different forms of knowledge.  

More details: Seblang is a ritual connected to the life of a rural community, its well-being, protection, ancestors, and the agricultural cycle. Seblang is described as part of the village-cleansing tradition (bersih desa), associated with honouring ancestors and guardian spirits and with the effort to maintain harmony between the community and the environment on which its life depends. 

Vodinnia Kusta is a spring–summer ritual from Polissia in which one of the girls is completely covered in greenery and led from house to house with songs and wishes for a good harvest and prosperity. Researchers also associate the ritual not only with agricultural fertility, but with ancestor veneration and beliefs about the presence of the dead in the life of the community. 

Rusalii rituals also belong to the spring–summer calendar cycle and centre on a special period of interaction between the world of the living, the natural environment, and the otherworld. They are associated with vegetation, water, fields, commemorative motifs, and the symbolic presence of rusalky in the human world, after which they are ritually “seen off.” 

What these practices share is that they emerge from cultures in which the land is not merely a resource or a backdrop, but is embedded in a system of relationships between the living, the dead, natural cycles, and the community. 

In Flux: No Land for Mothers was implemented by the Ukrainian Institute and Studio Klampisan, in collaboration with Opera Aperta and Damar Art Community, in partnership with the Jakarta Arts Council, Enambelas Production, MG Production, and Mancing Bareng Gumukrejo, with the support of the Cultural Diplomacy Foundation and EUNIC.