From the Big Screen to Art Spaces: Joko Anwar Presents 'Ghost in The Cell' Macabre Art Installation
The film ‘Ghost in The Cell’, directed by Joko Anwar, has become one of the most-watched films in recent weeks, with its screening time still exceeding 1,000 hours across approximately 300 cinemas in Indonesia. Released on April 16th, ‘Ghost in The Cell’ has garnered around 3.2 million viewers.
A month after its premiere, Joko Anwar, through his production company Come and See Pictures, presents the Macabre Art Installation ‘Ghost in The Cell’. This art exhibition features six macabre artworks from the film, offering a visual interpretation of death and torture as depicted in the movie.
“One of my intentions when making this film was to create a platform for cross-disciplinary collaboration among artists and across different mediums. In this Macabre Art installation, we approached six illustrators and assigned each one to create an illustration,” said Joko Anwar at the exhibition in Jakarta on Saturday (May 16th).
The six macabre artworks include ‘The Fan’, ‘Shower Head’, ‘The Stove’, ‘The Dancer’, ‘Flood Light’, and ‘Lady Justice’. They are created by illustrators Anwita Citriya, Benediktus Budi, Benny Kusnoto, Coki Greenway, Hafidzjudin, and Rudy Ao. Joko explained that each artwork has its own meaning and is closely related to current social issues in Indonesia.
For example, the installation ‘The Fan’, which depicts a bloodied human body hanging above a fan, represents the cycle of social violence such as corruption, exploitation, and abuse of power in Indonesia, which continues to repeat itself and become normalised.
“As for ‘Lady Justice’, it is based on an existing concept. This macabre art still reflects the same principles as the statue of Lady Justice or Themis, which represents legal issues. However, we have made a difference here by placing the head at the bottom. When we talk about the head, it relates to honour or self-esteem, and when self-esteem is placed below, it means that self-esteem is trampled upon,” Joko Anwar explained.
Through the experience of space, sound, texture, light, and physical scale, this exhibition invites visitors to enter an atmosphere that was previously only seen through cinema. The exhibition not only expands the world of ‘Ghost in The Cell’ but also opens up a dialogue about the body, violence, consumption, power, and how humans can become objects within a brutal social system.
In addition to being an artistic extension of the film, the Macabre Art Installation ‘Ghost in The Cell’ is also part of Come and See Pictures’ effort to introduce installation art and contemporary art to young people through mediums that are closer to them: film and popular culture. “Film makes viewers see. Exhibition space allows visitors to engage directly with the issues in the film,” Joko Anwar concluded.
The Macabre Art Installation ‘Ghost in The Cell’ can be enjoyed for free at Nirmana Falatehan, South Jakarta, from May 16th to 22nd, 2026, and is open to the public daily from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM. (H-2)
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