To conclude the exhibition ‘Mindful Circulations’, two video performances, ‘Ones Who Look At The Presence’ and ‘Jati Goes to Rotterdam’, by the Indonesian artist Otty Widasari was screened at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum. The Curator of the exhibition, Kerstin Winking introduced and discussed the films with the audience.

Widasari’s work is generally characterized by a strong interest in historiography, storytelling, and power relations within discourse. ‘Ones Who Look At The Presence’ is part of an on-going art project by Otty Widasari. In this video performance, Widasari constructs a projection screen and presents fragments from colonial film archives.

Otty Widasari was born in 1973 in Balikpapan, Indonesia. She studied journalism at the Institute of Social and Political Sciences in Jakarta and later graduated in Fine Arts at the Jakarta Arts Institute. Otty is an artist, writer, film director and co-founder of Forum Lenteng, a Jakarta-based egalitarian non-profit organization focused on the development of social and cultural studies.

‘Mindful Circulations’ includes artists from India, Indonesia and the Netherlands. It connects the economic and cultural phenomena of the past to our shared global culture. The exhibition ended on 14th July.

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Text from: Bhau Daji Lad Museum

Year
2019

Mumbai, India

69 Performance Club held its 15th edition of performance art series at GoetheHaus Jakarta on Sunday, June 23th, 2019. Curated by Hafiz Rancajale and curator assistant Anggraeni Widhiasih, the edition was themed Blackbox: Autoplay with eight performance arts by nine 69 Performance Club participants and Ridwan Rau Rau, a performance artist active in Indonesian performance art scene for the past 15 years. The performances were Study on Sanja Iveković: Practice Makes A Master by Pingkan Persitya Polla, Lines Formation No. 1 by Dhanurendra Pandji, Tempo Panggung by Manshur Zikri, Untitled by Ridwan Rau Rau, Vague by Robby Ocktavian and Syahrullah, Hello Red by Maria Deandra and Taufiqurrahman, Merah Jambu by Prashasti Wilujeng Putri, and Exit Status Ratio 3:2 by Otty Widasari and Theater Group. This edition presented the matter of the black box and practices of performances within which opens numerous possibilities for the participants to explore the performance art space with bodies, sound, lights, objects, composition, and presence (and absence), to play with the rules of the black box and its violations, and deliver those explorations as a language in their performances.

Black box has obtained its status as a special space in performance art. Performance art held within the black box is framed as a special artwork which then generated a set of rules in the black box, created a condition in which performance art must be enjoyed within a certain set of rules and manners, setting a distance between the performer and the audience. However, in its development, the practices of performance in contemporary art has shown substantial amount of effort to break through those rules and conditions, probing and exploring various possibilities to play within the black box. Those plays may turn into practices that shatter the barriers between the performer and the audience. Exploration of bodies, objects, lights, sound, and space in the black box is expected to be constructed into a poetic language in performance artworks.

Next month, 69 Performance Club series will be presented with different theme in the 16th edition. The participants will return to class and prepare to outline the concepts for the performance according to the curatorial theme. These concepts will then be developed into an artwork that will be displayed in the upcoming 69 Performance Club performance series.

Year
2019

Jakarta, Indonesia