+Road: Artists from Indonesia and Myanmar
+ROAD is a collaborative project between New Zero Art Space in Yangon, Myanmar and Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Arthub Asia is delighted to support the publication of this project and exhibition.
5 Burmanese Artists + 5 Jogja Artists: Aye Ko (Tin Swe), Htoo Aung Kyaw, May Moe Thu, Thin Lei Nwe, Zoncy (Zon Sapal Phyu), Doger Panorsa, Ikhsan Syahirul Alim (Ican), Restu Ratnaningtyas, Ristyanto Cahyo Wibowo, Wibowo Adi Utama
+ROAD (read: crossroad) is the title of a cross-cultural art project involving five young artists from Yogyakarta and five artists from Yangon. They were involved in an intensive program designed to present their own works in a context of their individual cultural understanding, scrutinizing the political, economic and social backgrounds of their art.
All of the exploratory activities of the art project +ROAD took place between June 1st to the 13th, 2010. A presentation and exhibition of the +ROAD activities will take place from June 13th to the 30th, 2010, at Cemeti Art House. The exhibition and presentation will be open to the public.
After the project is over, a post-event catalog will be published. The catalog will summarize and annotate the experiences, lessons and commentaries from the collaborative project involving two cultures through contemporary art.
Opening: Sunday, 13 June 2010 | 19.30
Location: Cemeti Art House, D.I. Panjaitan 41, Yogyakarta
A Short Diary
by New Zero Art Group
Here is a brief report of the art programs we did in Indonesia for the exchange project +ROAD. Myanmar artists arrived on the 1st of June at night. The next day at 10:00 am, all of the participating artists, the executives of Cemeti and project volunteers met at Cemeti Art House.
After an introduction, we started the presentations of five artists.
1. Doger Panorsa
2. Zoncy (Zon Sapal Phyu)
3. Ikhsan Syahirul Alim (Ican)
4. Wibowo Adi Utama
5. Thin Lei Nwe
After the presentation, we visited studios of leading Jyogya artists such as Mes 56 (Photography), IVAA and Agus Suwage.
On the 3rd of June, we continued with presentaions of another five artists:
1. Aye Ko (Tin Swe)
2. Restu Ratnaningtyas
3. May Moe Thu
4. Htoo Aung Kyaw
5. Ristyanto Cahyo Wibowo
After the presentation, we visited other studios, including the Sangkring Gallery and Kuni Cultural Studies.
During each presentation, many questions came out and all participants presented their individual perceptions on art. A comparison between the history of Myanmar art and the history of Indonesia art dominated a significant portion of our conversations. Later, we assisted in the performance/workshop of artist Agung Kurniawan, with a presentation of his artworks.
Afterward, the artist lead a performance art workshop and we exchanged ideas on how each group understood anthers’ country by creating a group-performance. Via these performances, we tried to make a picture together of our situation in Myanmar so that the local community could understand our background. Afterwards, Kedai Kebun Forum (Agung’s restaurant) served us a great lunch.
At night around 7:00 pm, we went to the Tembi Comtemporary Art center. It was quite far away from Cemeti so unfortunately we missed the installation performance by the young Australian artist Scotia Monkivitch. We later listened to a talk by artist Suzon Fuks, after which we moved on to another place, Mes 56, for a photography exhibition.
On Saturday, June 5th, we visited Marlioboro shopping area and an ancient temple, Prambanam. On the way to Prambanam, we visited the Black Goat gallery of the young artist Entang Wiharso.
On June 6th, we visited the famous artist Eko Nugroho. Then we visited a sculpture workshop, the largest one in Yogya.
On June 7th, a workshop by one of the Cemeti Art House Founders, Mella Jasma was done at Cemeti. We focused our thinking on the importance of materials in artwork. We evaluated and developed progressively a new art prototype.
First, we had to choose a certain material, then a specific association concern with the material, and finally a specific understanding of the material. From that workshop, we started thinking of the preparation for the artwork we had to produce for the exhibition. It was a very busy period for everyone; a new style of artwork came out of this process for most of the Myanmar artists: video arts, installations, 3D collages and more.
On June 13th, we had an extraordinary time at the opening party of +Road, not only for the individual works, but also for the Commando Dance of the invited Indonesian artists.
On June 14th, we flew to Bali. In Bali, the city of commercial painting and craft, we visited many art galleries and museums. The artists of Wina gallery, Antonius Kho and Nyoman Kemyem, invited us for dinner. The performances of three of the Myanmar artists, Aye Ko, Zoncy, Htoo Aung Kyaw and two Balinese artists, Jasmine and Diyano, were shown at Sika gallery.
Our flight back to Yangon was on June 18th.