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SATANG

Satang, meaning « the ring » in Indonesian, refers to the circular arena of cockfights. Still, it also designates a broader symbolic space: a ritual perimeter, a mirror of social dynamics, and a coded stage of masculinity.

This series was born from travels across Indonesia, within communities where the rooster is not merely an animal but a vessel of belief and a marker of status. In sacred Hindu-Balinese ceremonies, the spilling of blood is believed to appease ancestral spirits and maintain cosmic balance. Yet in clandestine fights held in private homes and remote countryside, these gestures are stripped of spiritual context. What remains is tension, spectacle, and control.

Though officially banned since 1981, these fights persist in the shadows. Roosters are armed with sharpened blades, their spurs prepared only during full moons or eclipses, far from the sight of women. The satang is an exclusively male domain. It is no longer ritual. It is performance: brutal, coded, magnetic.

Here, violence becomes language. Through the animal, men enact what they cannot speak: dominance, rivalry, the fear of failure, the hunger for recognition. The arena becomes a mirror where masculinity stages itself.

Satang does not seek to explain but to evoke the invisible. In the flutter of wings and the glint of blades, we glimpse something beyond tradition or cruelty — a choreography of instincts, a remnant of forgotten codes, a stage where men confront themselves through another. Within the satang, the rooster is no longer a creature. It is a reflection. A mirror of men.

Satang, signifiant « le cercle » en indonésien, désigne l'arène circulaire des combats de coqs. Mais il désigne aussi un espace symbolique plus vaste: un périmètre rituel, un miroir des dynamiques sociales et un théâtre codifié de la masculinité.

Cette série est née de voyages à travers l'Indonésie, au sein de communautés où le coq n'est pas un simple animal mais un réceptacle de croyances et un marqueur de statut. Dans les cérémonies sacrées hindou-balinaises, l'effusion de sang est censée apaiser les esprits ancestraux et maintenir l'équilibre cosmique. Pourtant, dans les combats clandestins organisés chez des particuliers ou dans les recoins reculés des campagnes, ces gestes sont dépouillés de leur dimension spirituelle. Ne restent alors que la tension, le spectacle et la maîtrise.

Bien qu'officiellement interdits depuis 1981, ces combats perdurent dans l'ombre. Les coqs sont armés de lames acérées, leurs ergots préparés uniquement lors des pleines lunes ou des éclipses, à l'abri du regard des femmes. Le satang est un domaine exclusivement masculin. Ce n'est plus un rituel. C'est une performance: brutale, codifiée, magnétique.

Ici, la violence devient langage. À travers l'animal, les hommes mettent en acte ce qu'ils ne peuvent dire: la domination, la rivalité, la peur de l'échec, la soif de reconnaissance. L'arène devient un miroir où la masculinité se met en scène.

Satang ne cherche pas à expliquer, mais à évoquer l'invisible. Dans le froissement des ailes et l'éclat des lames, on entrevoit quelque chose au-delà de la tradition ou de la cruauté — une chorégraphie d'instincts, un vestige de codes oubliés, une scène où l'homme se confronte à lui-même à travers l'autre. Au sein du satang, le coq n'est plus une créature. C'est un reflet. Un miroir des hommes.

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