Afloat Amidst Everything: The Role of Memory in Reshaping Personal Lore | Lala Bohang | TEDxJakarta

Memory is a funny stuff. It is both the result of our own decision and character, yet also can have a profound effect to our decision and behaviour. We think we can control it, but it can just emerge. The feel we have toward certain memory can also be altered with major life experience or new knowledge. Many people might disregard memory as something not reliable enough, but without the conscious decision to acknowledge it, some memory might derail us and redirect the cruise of our life. In this talk, Lala take us to the adventures to memories of her own childhood, hometown, colonialism, foods, roots, and eventually experience with death and disaster, navigating it with storytelling as the sail in an effort to understand self and shapping her own personal lore, in the sea of human experiences. Lala Bohang is a Jakarta-based visual artist and writer from Makassar. Despite her architectural background and initially working in the corporate world, she found solace and her true passion in drawing and storytelling. Since 2009, Lala has exhibited her talent in various group exhibitions in Indonesia and internationally. Lala gained widespread recognition with her bestselling trilogy—The Book of Forbidden Feelings (2016), The Book of Invisible Questions (2017), and The Book of Imaginary Beliefs (2019)—in which Lala combines text and drawing to create a unique storytelling style. Her collaborative work, The Journey of Belonging (2020), co-authored with Lara Nuberg, received the prestigious 2020 International Ronald McDonald Award. Lala's latest work, In the Middle of Everything (2023), is accompanied by a captivating solo exhibition, reflecting her unique style of storytelling. Beyond her artistic pursuits, Lala is a prominent name in literature industry, one of the co-founder and curator for Pear Press—a nextgen book label collaboration between Simpul Group and Gramedia Pustaka Utama, and this year appointed as one of the curator for the 20th anniversary Ubud Writers & Readers Festival's anthology. Lala's talk was recorded at Keong Emas Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, East Jakarta for TEDxJakarta—a 100% volunteer driven movement commited to ideas worth spreading, visit us at www.TEDxJakarta.org. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx