Natasha Tontey presents a story from Indonesia at the 61st Venice Biennale. Her latest work, The Phantom Combatants and the Metabolism of Disobedient Organs, is staged at Ateneo Veneto, Venice, in collaboration with LAS Art Foundation and Amos Rex.
The work centers on Len Karamoy, a female fighter from North Sulawesi who took part in the Permesta movement in the 1950s. Rather than recounting history in a conventional way, Tontey reimagines Karamoy as a mythological figure who evolves into the “Phantom Combatants”—a collective force with transformative power. The narrative weaves together themes of betrayal, revenge, and bodily transformation in a symbolic and often surreal form.
The installation combines video, sound, light, and sculpture, wrapped in a camp aesthetic reminiscent of B-movies. Tontey also incorporates technologies such as LiDAR and thermal imaging to explore how bodies and territories are mapped, measured, and militarized. Minahasa cultural references form a key layer, including the concept of purgatory, which reflects states of unresolved conflict and transition.
Part of the Macho Mystic Meltdown series, this is Tontey’s largest and most ambitious project to date. Through a theatrical yet reflective approach, she invites viewers to reconsider sovereignty—not only as a matter of territory, but also of the body and perception in a rapidly changing world.
The work was commissioned by LAS Art Foundation and Amos Rex, two institutions dedicated to supporting artistic practices in the technological era. It is exhibited at Ateneo Veneto, a 16th-century academy of sciences, literature, and arts in Venice’s San Marco district.
Visitors enter an immersive environment where video, sound, light, and sculptural elements unfold. At its center, Tontey’s film draws on the visual language of B-movies and military imagery, alongside technologies such as LiDAR, thermal cameras, and quantum ghost imaging, to reinterpret Karamoy’s story. In this retelling, Karamoy moves across time as a “ghost warrior,” whose “disobedient organs” have been biologically altered. As a shapeshifter and trickster, Karamoy uses Minahasa war rituals to evade control, aided by hormones and hallucinogens. Like spores in a mycelial network, the figure reappears through multiple avatars.
Karamoy, like Tontey, is Minahasan—part of an ethnic group whose identity blends Christianity and animism. Above the installation, the paneled ceiling of Ateneo Veneto features The Cycle of the Purification Fire (1600) by Jacopo Palma il Giovane. This imagery resonates with Minahasa beliefs and mirrors the work’s exploration of conflict, transformation, and in-between states.
By linking resistance to biological enhancement, ancestral ritual, and the disruption of surveillance, The Phantom Combatants reflects on contemporary military technologies, systems of control, and the ongoing struggle for bodily autonomy.
Tontey explains:
“Through this project, I try to listen to the quieter tones of history—the minor tones where fragments of memory, mourning, and ritual continue to resonate. These frequencies, often drowned out by dominant narratives, hold signals of survival, care, and imagination. They also open possibilities for imagining future technologies rooted in other perspectives—beyond the human—and more attuned to cosmological knowledge.”
Bettina Kames, CEO of LAS Art Foundation, and Kieran Long, CEO of Amos Rex, add:
“We are pleased to collaborate with Natasha Tontey on this new commission. The work reflects our shared commitment to supporting artists who engage critically with advanced technologies. By revisiting a complex period in Indonesian history through the figure of Len Karamoy, this project brings forward lesser-known perspectives while offering a timely reflection on conflict and control. Tontey’s exploration of biohacking and military imaging presents a compelling vision of possible futures.”
Natasha Tontey is a Minahasan artist and researcher based in Jakarta and Yogyakarta. Her practice spans film, video, performance, and installation, often exploring alternative futures from marginalized perspectives.
She has exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Museum MACAN, Jakarta (2024–2025), and Auto Italia, London (2022). Her work has also appeared in major group exhibitions such as the MUNCH Triennale, Oslo (2025–2026), the 18th Istanbul Biennial (2025), the 14th Mercosul Biennial (2025), the Leeum Art Museum, Seoul (2022), the Singapore Biennale (2022), Ghost 2565, Bangkok (2022), and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2021).
Her films have been screened at the London Film Festival (2025), FID Marseille (2025), and the Singapore International Film Festival (2021, 2023, 2025). In 2020, she received the HASH Award from ZKM Karlsruhe and Akademie Schloss Solitude, and participated in the Human Machine program at Akademie der Künste Berlin (2021–2023).
LAS Art Foundation is a Berlin-based non-profit that supports artistic experimentation at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Since its launch in 2019, it has commissioned projects exploring topics such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence, ecology, and biotechnology.
Amos Rex is a contemporary art museum in central Helsinki focused on experimental and technology-driven exhibitions. Known for its distinctive underground architecture, the museum connects local and global conversations on the future of art and public space.
The Phantom Combatants and the Metabolism of Disobedient Organs will travel to Amos Rex in Helsinki in 2027.
