Play, in the sense of ‘fresh, intriguing and humorous’ [1] pulsates through the body of Tromarama’s practice, which combines video art with new music and installation. Initiating as a collective in 2006 in Bandung, Indonesia, Febie Babyrose, Ruddy Hatumena and Herbert Hans, have been developing inventive responses to contemporary urban culture. Each work, rather than existing in viewership isolation, is woven into the larger cultural fabric of the city of Bandung and addresses in interactive reflection the cornerstones of Indonesia’s political and cultural environment [2].

The trio met whilst studying at the Institute Technology of Bandung, which since the 90s and 2000s has been active in the support of video art and the city’s creative currents. Students in respectively graphic design, advertising and printmaking, the triumvirate came together for the “traumatic” creation of ‘Serigala Militia’ (2006) – a stop motion animation film (4 min 22 sec) made of hundreds of woodcut plywood boards, flashing in speeding sequence to the beats of Seringai, an Indonesian hard rock band. Acting as a music video but presented simultaneously as an installation, this meeting of minds framed the collective’s energetic and intricate, yet playful and pulsating practice.