curator-in-residence at 1335MABINI

Between July 26 and August 22, 2017, I am curator-in-residence at 1335MABINI in Manila. During my residency I conduct two workshops: an experimental poetry workshop and a portfolio workshop/review.

Dear Curator Curate Me: Chabib Duta Hapsoro & Rizki Lazuardi

Dear Curator Curate Me: Chabib Duta Hapsoro and Rizki Lazuardi

Selasar Sunaryo Art Space (http://www.selasarsunaryo.com/) 19 May-8 June 2013

Dear Curator Curate Me is a project by Kristoffer Ardeña.

The booklet is designed by Irfan Hendrian and hand-made by Oma Anna. The limited edition booklet can be downloaded here (Issuu) and here (Box).

Dear Curator Curate Me in Indonesia is coordinated by Roma Arts (http://fatumbrutum.blogspot.com/).

Kristoffer Ardeña selected 15 videos and this selection travels around the world, each place where this selection makes a stop a curator is invited to develop a discourse on these videos. Dear Curator Curate Me at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space is this project’s debut, which will continue in the Philippines, Spain, Peru, etc. This project reverses the roles of the artist and the curator in a witty manner by emphasizing the curatorial essay. This traveling project aims to show how in different contexts around the globe curators can respond to the same collection of videos and slowly this project will turn into an archive of a curatorial discourse with its many contrasting voices.

 – Roy Voragen (project coordinator Dear Curator Curate Me Indonesia & Roma Arts)

The making of the Dear Curator Curate Me booklet: the binding

The Dear Curator Curate Me booklet is designed by Irfan Hendrian and hand-made by Oma Anna.

The making of the Dear Curator Curate Me booklet: sorting the pages

The making of the Dear Curator Curate Me booklet: printing the cover

The cover is made on a hand press at the Oma Anna studio (a video of the printing process).

Dear Curator Curate Me: Chabib Duta Hapsoro and Rizki Lazuardi

19 May 3pm, Roma Arts artist-in-resident Kristoffer Ardeña (1976, Philippines) will present Dear Curator Curate Me at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space with Chabib Duta Hapsoro and Rizki Lazuardi as the curators. Kristoffer selected 15 videos and this selection travels around the world, each place where this selection makes a stop a curator is invited to develop a discourse on these videos. Dear Curator Curate Me at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space is this project’s debut, which will continue in the Philippines, Spain, Peru, etc. This project reverses the roles of the artist and the curator in a witty manner by emphasizing the curatorial essay. This traveling project aims to show how in different contexts around the globe curators can respond to the same collection of videos and slowly this project will turn into an archive of a curatorial discourse with its many contrasting voices.

The opening will be officiated by Pak Krisna Murti and the opening will be followed by a curatorial talk at which the artist is present.

For more information:

Selasar Sunaryo Art Space: http://www.selasarsunaryo.com/   

Bandung Network 7

With a 14 hour delay, Kristoffer Ardeña has arrived in Bandung and he will stay at Roma Arts until May 23. He is the fourth artist from the Philippines visiting Roma Arts in one year. The first was Mark Salvatus, who was here exactly a year ago for a short stay (he is the founder of 98B). The second was Marika Constantino (head special projects 98B), she gave a talk about 98B at Common Room and she created a mural at Roma Arts. And the third was Jef Carnay, he gave a talk on On Pins and Needles at Galeri Gerilya and he created an installation and performance at Asbestos. Kristoffer will give a talk at ITB’s Visual Arts Study Program (15 May 2pm) and his project Dear Curator Curate Me will open 19 May at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space.

Jef Carnay will talk about his Roma Arts residency at 98B

The Big Shift - Ellert Haitjema - Cemeti Art House

HotWave#5 artist-in-resident Eller Haitjema (from the Netherlands) did a residency at Cemeti Art House in 2012 and he recently published his book The Big Shift, which includes my essay (for my essay see here).

Documentation Roma Arts artist-in-residency Jef Carnay

Open publication - Free publishing - More asbestos


Documentation of Roma Arts artist-in-residency Jef Carnay
Bandung, November 2012
Supported by: Valentine Willie Fine Art
In collaboration with:
ASNARUPA
Asbestos Art Space
and Galeri Gerilya

Remember

Jef Carnay's Roma Arts artist-in-residency has come to an end and he returned to Manila. For his residency, we collaborated with Asbestos Art Space (performance & installation) and Galeri Gerilya (presentation and performances) in Bandung.

Qualia by Jef Carnay

Qualia by Jef Carnay

Roma Arts presents Qualia by Jef Carnay at Asbestos Art Space

Jef Carnay is a Manila-based visual and performance artist. Qualia is the result of his residency at Roma Arts, Bandung, November 2012. Carnay’s presentation includes a new installation and performance at Asbestos Art Space. And Qualia is based on the artist’s everyday experiences in Bandung during his residency.

Opening & Performance 24 November 7pm

Until 27 November 7pm

Asbestos Art Space

Jalan RAA Martanegara 86 Bandung

www.facebook.com/asbestos.artspace

asbestosartspace.wordpress.com

Jef Carnay is a Manila-based visual and performance artist who exhibited his works in local and international art galleries, museums and alternative spaces; he performed at both local and international art events; he curated local live art performances. Currently he is one of the board of trustees of the Filipino Visual Arts and Design Rights Organization (FILVADRO), moreover, he is a member of the core committee of TutoK (an artists initiative). He is an active member of NeWorlDisorder, an open, collaborative and loose multimedia art initiative. He is also a convener of the art event 'Bulong', a night of poetry, songs and other performances. And he is the lead vocalist of the band 'earthfishfish'.

Roma Arts, founded in 2011, promotes passionate, ambitious and focused ways of producing, presenting, experiencing, and writing about the diverse forms of arts. Roma Arts gives keen attention to art practices, forms of presentation, experiencing the arts, and discourses on art. In 2012, Roma Arts started a residency program to foster creative person-to-person contacts.

Roy Voragen

Jef Carnay’s Roma Arts residency is supported by Valentine Willie Fine Art

Bandung Network 5

Manila-based artist Jef Carnay (http://langoyisdalangoy.wordpress.com) comes to Bandung for his residency at Roma Arts. He will show work he creates in Bandung at Asbestos and he will also give a presentation at Galeri Gerilya.

Twists and Turns – A mural by Marika Constantino

Twists and Turns

‘Balancing Paradoxes and Paradigms’ – A mural by Marika Constantino

Manila-based visual artist Marika Constantino and I first met at Arte Polis 3 (http://arte-polis.info/) in 2010, a biannual conference organized by the department of architecture at the Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB). During this conference I organized a roundtable discussion on public space and Marika was one of the discussants (subsequently, I published an essay in Tempo Magazine based on this discussion). And when she told me that she would return to Bandung to participate in Arte Polis 4, we started discussing what we could do during her stay at Roma Arts. We decided on two projects: first, a talk about 98B (http://www.98-b.org/) in collaboration with Common Room Networks Foundation (http://commonroom.info/, for more info: http://fatumbrutum.blogspot.com/2012/07/marika-constantino-gave-talk-about-98b.html); and second, a mural at Roma Arts (Jalan Cibeunying Kolot III no.41, Sadang Serang, Bandung). And she was anxious about both; both meant a stepping out of her comfort zone. And both turned out fantastic.

In three ways the mural was a first for Marika. First, she had never worked before with this medium. Second, she had never worked on such a large size (1080x120cm, the largest she ever worked on was approximately 200x100cm). And third, she had never worked outdoors with a live audience: kids who helped out, who looked over her shoulder and commented on her work; thus far, she had always separated creating from exhibiting work, solitude of and focus in the studio from the art space. Creating a mural comes closer to her curatorial practice, especially the project ‘Juan for Trees (143s)’ at the Cultural Center of the Philippines for the 2009 Green Earth Day (http://www.culturalcenter.gov.ph/).

Every day, kids play in front of my house: they play badminton, soccer and with kites on the street until dusk at around 6pm (there are no street lights). They also come to my house to see my dogs in action: Bobi – the 3-year-old, hyperactive boxer – and Ucil – the 9-year-old mellow Golden Retriever. To me it came as no surprise that they would gravitate around Marika as soon as she started her work on the mural. However, when we invited them to come into the house and help cutting and painting the figures for the mural, I wasn’t too sure if they would have the attention span to do a good job, but in fact they did. At first only the boys came in, some of whom like to tease other kids, so the girls didn’t come in at first, but when they saw the boys were taking it seriously some girls joined the fun. And after they were finished, we added their names onto the figures.

When the time came to glue the figures onto the wall, the kids came back to look for their name. And while looking for their own name, they pitched in to glue the figures onto the wall. When this was finished, Marika added a layer of emulsion and small mirrors. She added the mirrors only after the sun had set, so the kids would find a surprise the next morning. And when they returned, they interacted with the wall by making funny faces in the mirrors. But is this participatory art? Perhaps not; and for a simple reason: they don’t have a notion of (contemporary) art. They helped a new friend and had fun in the process.

Some regard public art as vandalism (especially graffiti). Some others regard public art as political. Public art isn’t always vandalism (what about all the statues in our cities celebrating ‘our’ heroes?). And public art isn’t always political (it is people who create public places for their political purposes). Marika’s mural is neither vandalism nor political (it is farfetched to judge her mural in terms of the recent Arte Polis 4 conference, i.e. as connectivity and place making).

Without a single exception, all my neighbors responded positively. They pointed at other possible walls to be turned into murals. And they called Marika’s work beautiful, attractive, pretty, great and etcetera. Even though, in contemporary art beauty has become a taboo – an artwork has to mean something discursively, as if the sensuous isn’t meaningful.

A mural sounds more permanent that it probable is. How many soccer balls will bounce of the wall in the coming months? Grass will seep through the cracks in the wall, sunshine and rain will do their work as well. All this, inevitably, will alter Marika’s work, a work with her signature repetitive pattern. And our perception of this repetitive pattern is permutated by movement – on foot, bike or by car – and changing light conditions. And how will the experience of creating a mural change Marika’s future creative process and output?

I thank Marika for our warm friendship and her spirited work on the fantastic mural. I also thank Ricky for his extensive documentation (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3806627759084.159909.1079114434&type=1), all the friends who stopped and pitched in (Professor Haider, Jeanne&Scott, Ami, Irfan, Rika, Siesca&Danu), my wife Mei, her three Oma Anna assistants – Anis, Pipin and Nita – and, of course, the kids who all kindly helped. For all of us, this challenging project has been a life enriching experience.

Roy Voragen

Roma Arts, Bandung, Indonesia

July 2012

Marika Constantino's mural at Roma Arts - artist statement

Balancing Paradoxes and Paradigms

Paradox – impossibility, enigma, puzzle, contradiction, irony

Paradigm – example, model, patter, archetype, standard

The concept of this work is based on the abovementioned definitions.  As we go through our own paths we must somehow find a sense of equilibrium in managing the supposed unattainable and the norm.  It also takes into consideration two perspectives.  From the eyes of the child, everything is play.  With imagination, things are doable, viable and fun.  As the owners of the street, I wanted them to see themselves in the mural.  Having the kids participate in the creative process will hopefully give them ownership of the final output.

On the other hand, adults tend to forget these child-like moments of exuberance and excitement.  We must not.  Let us reflect on the times when we ourselves felt much enthusiasm and looked forward to the possibilities that the next day had to offer (as the kids showed me while I was working).

The mural also intends to symbolize the many directions and options we can, should and do take.  At the end of the day, it is a matter of choice.  On the off chance that it ends up not to our liking, there are other avenues.  Like children who have resilience and adaptability… we learn, we adjust and we move on.

Marika Constantino

Roma Arts, Bandung, Indonesia

July 2012

Marika Constantino's mural at Roma Arts - day 3&4

More photos:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3806627759084.159909.1079114434&type=1

Marika Constantino's mural at Roma Arts - day 2