Indonesia’s urbanization and economic development projects during the New Order established regimes of visuality that ignored aspects of everyday urban life. Contemporary Indonesian artists attempt to share untold histories and stories of everyday life from the urban past or give expression to the social and creative challenges and opportunities of the urban present. This article focuses on multimedia artist Maryanto and new media art collective Ruang MES 56. Maryanto’s use of allegory and his notion of art as a ‘space of exception’ constitute thoughtful ways of engaging with the transformations of people’s urban environments and identities. MES 56’s work utilizes the critical and humorous potential of the ludic to deal with the new urban realities and possibilities under democratic reform. I argue that artistic exception does not exclude but in some ways strengthens, and in other ways contradicts, reconnection with the everyday realities of Indonesian urban life.

新秩序期间印度尼西亚的城市化和经济发展项目建立了忽视城市日常生活各个方面的视觉制度。当代印度尼西亚艺术家试图分享过去城市日常生活中不为人知的历史和故事，或表达当今城市的社会和创造性挑战和机遇。本文重点关注多媒体艺术家 Maryanto 和新媒体艺术团体 Ruang MES  56。Maryanto 对寓言的运用以及他将艺术作为“例外空间”的概念构成了参与人们城市环境和身份转变的深思熟虑的方式。制造执行系统 56的作品利用了游戏的批判性和幽默性的潜力来应对民主改革下新的城市现实和可能性。我认为，艺术例外并不排除与印度尼西亚城市生活日常现实的重新联系，而是在某些方面加强了与印度尼西亚城市生活的日常现实的重新联系，而在其他方面则与之相反。