SWAB 2026 and Fajar Abadi: a performative dinner on food, power and political representation

On Friday 9 October 2026, as part of SWAB Barcelona, ADN Galeria hosted a performative dinner by Indonesian artist Fajar Abadi, in which food, collective participation and political imagery became the central elements of a shared experience.

Audience participation also involved an unconventional form of exchange: the food was paid for with a smile, turning an everyday gesture into a symbolic currency. This approach connects the dinner with Kuehsenyum, the performance presented by Fajar Abadi on Sunday as part of SWAB Barcelona, in which a smile also served as a means of payment.

During the event, all participants took part in a communal meal, with the same food served in compartmentalised metal trays, following the format used by Indonesia's Makan Bergizi Gratis (MBG) government programme. The action also involved wearing face masks bearing the image of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's smile, worn by all participants throughout the dinner.

The performance takes the MBG programme as its starting point. Launched by Prabowo Subianto's government in January 2025, the initiative provides free nutritious meals to students. It operates through a network of centralised kitchens and large-scale food production and distribution systems, with the involvement of institutions such as the armed forces.

By bringing this system into the artistic space, Fajar Abadi recreates and transforms a situation rooted in Indonesian social policy. The compartmentalised trays evoke the programme's mechanisms of organisation and distribution, while Prabowo's smile, reproduced on the face masks, introduces a reflection on the construction of political power's public image and the ways in which it is represented.

Through this action, an everyday activity such as sitting down to eat becomes a collective experience that invites reflection on the relationships between food, politics and authority. By directly involving the audience, Abadi turns the dinner into a space for participation and critical reflection, where the gestures of sharing, consuming and smiling take on a political dimension.