20 Arts and Cultural Festivals to Visit in Southeast Asia in 2020
It’s the year 2020 and the world is rife with new Instagram filters, hashtag 2020vision (yes, we get it) and the perennial “new year, new me” declarations. Well, if you’ve got travelling and #jetsetter on your new year’s resolution list,…
The brutal examinations of “Constellation of Violence”
By Patricia Tobin (561 words, 4-minute read) Constellation of Violence consists of a very simple setup: a giant screen on stage, a historian, two artists and a group of individuals. These elements are combined, in varying degrees, to form…
The Personal, the Humour and the Horror: Interview with Irwan Ahmett
By Patricia Tobin (1,140 words, 6-minute read) The concluding production of TPAM 2019 was Constellation of Violence, a lecture-performance by artist Irwan Ahmett, which focused on the culmination of the Cold War in Indonesia in 1965, from its lead-up…
Contortions and Gentle Songs: SEA at Venice Biennale
By Teo Xiao Ting (1,414 words, 6-minute read) A vivacious viscous zoo swirling with prestige and art, the Venice Biennale spins me exhausted after 45 days. When I was asked to write about the Southeast Asian artworks I’ve encountered here,…
Asian Arts Media Roundtable 2019: When Asian Critics Meet
By Akanksha Raja and Ke Weiliang (1,444 words, 6-minute read) The inaugural Asian Arts Media Roundtable (AAMR) took place between 24 to 25 May 2019 at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Organised by ArtsEquator, the two-day gathering of over…
Mad women, divine punishment, and “Dionysus”
By Corrie Tan (1,700 words, eight-minute read) This review contains spoilers and/or plot points for The Bacchae, a 2,500-year-old ancient Greek tragedy; Beware of Pity, a 1939 German novel adapted for the stage by the Schaubühne Berlin and Complicité; as…
“Beautiful Water”: Intercultural Theatre Made in Threes
By Ken Takiguchi (1,229 words, 6-minute read) As I enter the auditorium of Kirari Fujimi, a public theatre located about one hour away from the centre of Tokyo, I find myself in the waters of somewhere in Asia. The audience…
Female artists, art biennial to grace National Gallery this year (via The Jakarta Post)
Indonesia’s arts scene is by no means lacking, yet most of its big names are men, with notable female artists largely unexplored. An upcoming art exhibition at the National Gallery in Central Jakarta, titled Into the Future, aims to change…
“Dionysus”: Suzuki Tadashi Brings Vengeance to SIFA 2019
By Kathy Rowland (642 words, three-minute read) Suzuki Tadashi is one of the brand names in the international tour circuit, whose productions have earned critical praise and inspired several generations of audiences. A decade on from his last production in…
ArtsEquator’s Top 10 Picks at the Performing Arts Meeting 2019
Established in 1995, the Tokyo Performing Arts Market (TPAM) was created to be a platform to network Japanese artists with producers and funders. 24 years later, TPAM has expanded in scope and purpose, to include live performance, panel discussions and…
‘Maaf Senin Tutup’: 1998 through eclectic eyes of Anggun Priambodo (via The Jakarta Post)
Anggun Priambodo’s latest exhibition is framed under the guise of a fictional character he created for his last movie of the same name, Maaf Senin Tutup (Sorry, Closed on Mondays) — an artist named Eva who is trying to establish herself in…
Rianto’s “Medium”: Of Journeys, Transformations & Corporeality
By Nirmala Seshadri (990 words, four-minute read) Total darkness. The sound of sleep. Sleep of an eternal sort. Slowly the light reveals a solitary human body conveying a sense of sleep or is it semi-consciousness? Now, the entry of…
On the Indonesian Dance Festival with Maria Darmaningsih
As part of ArtsEquator’s series of interviews profiling festival directors in Southeast Asia, we get to learn more about Maria Darmaningsih, co-founder and current artistic director of the bi-annual Indonesian Dance Festival (IDF), which was launched in 1992. Its 14th edition…
“Hijrah”: In Between Body and Gender ‘Migration’
By Michael HB Raditya (1018 words, five-minute read) Read this review in Bahasa Indonesia. Baca review ini dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Rianto, 37, has attracted public attention with his Lengger Lanang dance performance. This dance is a type of dance from Banyumas that…
“Hijrah”: Tubuh di Antara dan Migrasi Gender
By Michael HB Raditya (1000 words, five-minute read) Read this review in English. Baca review ini dalam Bahasa Inggeris. Sejak kemunculannya, Rianto Manali (37) telah mencuri perhatian publik dengan tari yang ia pertunjukkan. Adalah Lengger Lanang, salah satu jenis tari dari Banyumas…
“One Two Jaga”: Keberanian Baharu Sinema Malaysia
Oleh Daniyal Kadir (1260 patah kata, 5-miinit bacaan) Penyampaian kritikan sosial atau politik dalam filem-filem Malaysia jarang berlaku melalui suasana yang berani dan mendatangkan ghairah. Malah mengkritik melalui karya secara berdepan seperti sukar untuk dilakukan. Terdapat banyak hal yang menyumbang…
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (23 – 29 July 2018)
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali, Bromo, Solo and Jakarta from 23-29 July 2018 In Bali, Uma Seminyak is exhibiting Dolanan, an art show by 4 artists that highlights the world of imagination. Dolanan means play or specifically…
Kartika Affandi: 9 Ways of Seeing | Interview with videomaker Christopher Basile (via Culture 360)
A new documentary film tells the story of visionary artist Kartika Affandi, daughter of Indonesia‘s most celebrated painter, and a groundbreaking personality in her own right. On the poster for the documentary: “Kartika: 9 Ways of Seeing”, the smiley face of…
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (16 – 22 July 2018)
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Solo and Jakarta from 16 – 22 July 2018 We have picked a variety of art events this week that might be interesting for you. Balai Soedjatmoko in Solo presents the first…
Austrian singer collaborates with ‘angklung’ musicians at Indonesian Cultural Night in Vienna (via The Jakarta Post)
Angklung musicians featuring Austrian soprano Maria Theresia Gruber staged the song Bengawan Solo at the Indonesian Cultural Night event held at Vienna’s Weltmuseum on Tuesday evening. Antara reported that the young soprano also sang “Im Prater blühn wieder die Bäume”…
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (9 – 15 July 2018)
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali, Yogyakarta and Jakarta from 9 – 15 July 2018 Titian Art Space in Bali presents the exhibition Mokoh for the house of Mondo. The late I Dewa Putu Mokoh was a Balinese…
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (2 – 8 July 2018)
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bandung and Jakarta from 2 – 8 July 2018 Dance lovers and practitioners, we have several dance events in Jakarta and Bandung for you to choose from. Today (Monday, 2 July 2018) and…
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (25 June – 1 July 2018)
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali and Jakarta from 25 June – 1 July 2018 What would cultural heritage look like beyond the western perspective? Journey around East Timor’s Local Heritage is a lecture by Dominique Guillaud that…
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (18 – 24 June 2018)
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Jakarta, Ngawi and Bali from 18-24 June 2018 In the small town of Ngawi that is located on the border of Central and West Java, there will be a film screening and discussion…
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (11 – 17 June 2018)
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Jakarta and Bali from 11-17 June 2018 Barus is a region in Central Tapanuli in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Between the 7th and 15th century, Barus was a center of spice trading in Indonesia…
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (4 – 10 June 2018)
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali, Yogyakarta and Jakarta from 4 – 10 June 2018 We begin our weekly picks in Bali with the True Line exhibition by Sanggar Bares. Created by I Nyomana Bratayasa, Sanggar Bares is…
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (28 May – 3 June 2018)
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Yogyakarta and Jakarta from 28 May – 3 June 2018 It’s a brand new week and we’re bringing you a variety of selections of art events in Indonesia that are happening this…
Semar in the eyes of Sohieb Toyaroja (via The Jakarta Post)
For artist Sohieb Toyaroja, Semar is his favorite jester in Javanese mythology because the character is divine and very wise. Semar, one of four famous punakawan (jesters), has three sons: Petruk, Gareng and Bagong. Each has a different form, representing different philosophical…
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (21 – 27 May 2018)
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Bali from 21 – 27 May 2018 If you feel like catching some films on Tuesday night, head to Goethehaus in Jakarta to catch Indentitas, a screening of 5 Indonesian…
Beyond the Boxoffice: On the Cultural Relevance of Indonesian Cinema (via Cinema Poetica)
One might argue that we are entering the new golden era of Indonesian cinema. For the first time in the history of post-Reformation cinema, in two consecutive calendar years, the boxoffice top ten are fully dominated by films with more than one…