Burned Victims commemorated the deaths of hundreds of innocent people in the artist’s hometown in Jakarta. These victims were locked in a mall that was set on fire during the riots that protested Suharto’s dictatorship, just days before the president stepped down. They were burned alive. In the installation, scorched wooden logs resembling torsos are strung in metal armatures, while charred shoes placed at the base of each sculpture brought home the horror of the situation. A video captured Harsono’s public performance in 1998 in which he lit the logs later used in the installation on fire as a proclamation of the government’s wrongdoing. This act of fury, unfolded in an urban setting, was the artist’s means to convey the urgency of his beliefs to the general public. Harsono—as well as his compatriots who incorporated political dissension into their practices—saw art as a vehicle to mobilize passive observers.