Performance Klub - EUROPALIA INDONESIA

21.Oct.17
18.Feb.18
Europalia Courtesy of Wenyau and Asia Art Archive LR

S.M.A.K. is participating in the extensive program of EUROPALIA INDONESIA with Performance Klub, a project that highlights Indonesia’s influential performance scene.

During the military regime of General Suharto (1967-98), artists in the country made use of the street, their bodies and experiments to express their political opinions. Performance art became the artistic-activist activity par excellence because it could happen anywhere, required little in the way of resources, and wasn’t bound to any particular medium or time. After democratization, artists continued to develop performances to show how contemporary art can break through colonial power structures and explore new social and artistic realities. Today, Indonesia still has a very lively performance scene that – highly conscious of its own culture and traditions – engages contemporary life with its global political problems, technological growth and economic vulnerability.

Under the title Performance Klub, which refers to the first joint initiative of Indonesian performers in 2003, S.M.A.K. presents different generations of the country’s artists together. The museum invites pioneers such as Arahmaiani and Iwan Wijono, internationally recognized performers such as Melati Suryodarmo and connects them with young, upcoming artists such as 69 Performance Club and Padjak, who use performance as an experimental research platform. The program includes both new and existing performances. They will be shown in a space that will bear the traces of the successive performances through time.

Within this framework, visual artist Setu Legi will create a mural that embraces the contributions of the performers as an accolade.

  • SETU LEGI (2017) – 20.10.2017... 18.02.2018
    [Performance] Berkubang darah, berkalang tanah” Sebuah terjemahan dalam deskripsi situasi yg mencekam, meregangkan sel-sel otak, menembus batas nurani, nilai nilai kemanusiaan dalam kerangka perebutan kuasa atas tanah, air, udara yang menghidupi kita semua (2017)
  • ARAHMAIANI
    [Performance] Memory of Nature (2013)
    [Performance] Flag Project (2006)
  • DUTO HARDONO
    [Performance] Variation & Improvisation for In Harmonia Progressio (2017). In collaboration with Vox Mago
  • IWAN WIJONO
    [Performance] Nasuntara Manuscript (2016) - Wednesday 8 November 2017 - 8 pm
  • 69 PERFORMANCE CLUB
    [Performance] Penal Colony (2017) - Wednesday 22 November 2017 – 8 pm
  • MELATI SURYODARMO
    [Performance] Amnesia (2016) - Sunday 3 December 2017 – 11 am
  • MOELYONO
    [Performance] My Life as A Drawing Teacher: On Art and Activism (2017) - Thursday 14 December 2017 – 8 pm
  • PADJAK
    [Performance] Om, Teolet Om! (2017) - Thursday 21 December 2017 – 8 pm
  • ELISABETH IDA
    [Performance] Mengenangmu Yang Dihilangkan (2018) - 11 January 2018 - 8 pm

EUROPALIA INDONESIA has been organizing art biennials focused on different host countries since 1969. This year’s focus is on the rich heritage of Indonesia, a country that has experienced an important political, cultural and economic evolution over the past twenty years. More information here.

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