The Project

Wangsit is an independent documentary and artistic project initiated by French photographer & Art director David Haefflinger. It explores the thin line between reality, ritual, and belief through Javanese performance, seen as both a spiritual journey and a social expression.

In Java, performance often extends beyond the scene. It becomes a space where spirituality and identity merge, where the body keeps alive a memory carried across generations.

Developed through immersive fieldwork, Wangsit is realised in close collaboration with Javanese artists and cultural guardians, including Kadek Puspasari and Wisnu HP. Together, they engage with dancers, choreographers, and keepers of traditions such as the Reog, Tari Topeng, Jatilan, creating a living dialogue between ritual practice and visual interpretation.

Haefflinger’s approach treats photography as an act of attention and transmission. His work explores how the sacred coexists with daily life, how gestures of devotion and performance carry traces of memory, transformation, and belief.

Ambitious in scale and duration, Wangsit is conceived as an evolving body of work spanning photography, film, sound, and performances. The project has been recognized with support from the Permanent Delegation of Indonesia to UNESCO and the Institut Français d’Indonésie, the project aims to sustain and reinterpret Indonesia’s intangible heritage through contemporary artistic collaboration.

Key Collaborators

  • David Haefflinger is a French photographer and art director based in Paris.

    After a career in advertising between Singapore and Jakarta, he turned to photography with a focus on cultural heritage and spirituality.
    His visual language combines documentary observation with an artistic sensibility shaped by cinematic storytelling and the play of light and atmosphere.

    Wangsit is his first major documentary project, developed after four years living in Indonesia and a lasting engagement with Javanese ritual and tradition.

  • Choreographer & Dancer (Bali/Java – based in Paris)

    Educated at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (Surakarta), Kadek’s work bridges classical Javanese and Balinese aesthetics with contemporary sensibility. She investigates body memory, femininity, and cultural resilience through dance.

  • Reog Dancer & Choreographer (Ponorogo, East Java)

    Trained in Reog since childhood, Wisnu embodies the physical and spiritual core of this powerful Javanese tradition. His practice connects martial movement, trance, and mythology. The breath (napas) of Reog as living energy.

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