A Notional History

In 'A Notional History', a performer, a journalist, and an activist excavate school textbooks, inherited memories, and video interviews of exiled revolutionaries – uncovering erasures, exclusions and questions around the Malayan Emergency. They investigate and speculate on the possible histories for a different Malaysia, intersecting the personal, the national, and the notional. This documentary performance responds to a critical moment in Malaysia – the publishing of new, official history textbooks - following the 2018 general elections where citizens voted in a new government after 61 years.

A Notional History has been performed in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Brussels, Georgetown (Penang), and again in Yokohama in 2022. Curated alongside other performances in BIPAM 2023, its correlation will start a conversation about Southeast Asia in contemporary times.