Keren dan Beken (literary: Cool and Popular) is the first collective works created by MES 56 for the Jogja Biennale VII “Countrybution” in 2003. Responding the theme of the biennale, MES 56 mad a simulation of a very common practice of profession in Indonesia; graduation day photographer is a very basic photography function in the society, which can’t be always perceived solely from the perspective of visual art.

At the opening night of the Biennale, which was attended by different circles of society, “the photographers” of MES 56 sold and printed the photos of that particular evening, inscribed with the white text read “Cool and Popular”.

In this work, the status of photography as an ambiguous medium is being a toy, and the boundaries between high art-low art, artist-non artist are emphasized.

This work were re-enact at 2018 in the exhibition “A History of Boys, The MES 56 and beyond: A Survey of Contemporary Photography in Indonesia” at DECK, Singapore. In the exhibition this work showed in the context where distance, mobility and social relation are accelerated by the internet.