OzAsia Festival 2015: Selected Works | Melati Suryodarmo

M E L AT I S U R YO D A R M O

M E L AT I S U R Y O D A R M O

Exhibiting and performing at galleries and festivals throughout the world, Melati Suryodarmo is renowned for her work across many art forms including video, photography and installation. However it is her durational performances that she is best known and respected for.

As part of the 2015 OzAsia Festival, Melati will perform the world premiere of her work 24,901 Miles. This live, durational performance will take place over two days at Adelaide Festival Centre providing a rare, one-off opportunity for Adelaide audiences to experience one of Melati’s captivating performances.

24,901 Miles draws on Melati’s exploration of distance, displacement, migration and the strangeness between strangers. The title of the work 24,901 Miles, refers to the distance around the earth at the equator. Looking at the idea of the equator as a symbolic circle, Melati is inspired by the many cultures around the world that use this symbol to explain the concept of there being no beginning or end, that there are no divisions. The circle is therefore the perfect symbol of completeness, eternity and the soul. However, a circle is also a boundary, an enclosure, a symbol of completion and returning cycles.

By investigating the idea of the equator as a beautiful, symbolic reality, Melati addresses the concept of the cyclical journey. Her most recent research has focused on the basic human need to find a home, to build a shelter wherever and whenever we arrive. Through her own experiences of migration, living between Indonesia and Germany, this shelter for Melati came in the form of her own body. Her body became a container, one that continues to provide her with shelter, stores her memories, her emotional energy and her genetics.

To accompany her performance 24,901 Miles, there will be two exhibitions of Melati’s video works showing at the Artspace Gallery, Adelaide Festival Centre and the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia. For these exhibitions, Melati has chosen a selection of works, including early documentation videos of past performances such as Der Sekundentraum, originally performed in Germany in 1998, through to her most recent video work Performing John Cage Song Books in 2015.

Born in Surakarta (Solo), Indonesia in 1969, Melati was raised in a creative environment of artists and dancers. This upbringing afforded her exposure to many art forms at a young age. Her father Suprapto Suryodarmo is a well-respected teacher of Amerta, a form of meditative dance. Despite her creative upbringing Melati never planned to be an artist. Her studies began with a degree in International Relations at the Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia. It wasn’t until 1994 when she moved with her husband to Germany that a chance encounter with renowned Japanese Butoh dancer, Anzu Furukawa, led to Melati’s engagement with performance art.

Commencing her studies under Furukawa at The Braunschweig University of Art (HBK), Germany’s second largest college of fine arts, Melati would later become a student of Marina Abramovic, one of the world’s most recognised and respected performance artists of the last three decades. Often referred to as ‘the grandmother of performance art’ Marina is acknowledged as pioneering the use of performance as a visual art form. Melati would go on to become Marina’s assistant, focusing her development during this time on durational, solo performances.

Melati’s performances can last for days on end. Using her body as the medium through which to create the work, she pushes herself both physically and psychologically. The result is mesmerising to watch, the audience becomes drawn in, each connecting in their own unique way. Perceptions can vary from humorous to deeply spiritual. Many people think of art as a painting or photograph but Melati challenges these preconceived ideas by providing the audience with a chance to experience something new. By engaging with Melati’s performance, the audience is invited into a situation that can only exist within that particular space at that particular time.

CHARISSA DAVIES Visual Arts Curator, Adelaide Festival Centre

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‘WHEN SHE PERFORMS…YOU CAN’T TAKE YOUR EYES OFF HER.” Marina Abramovic

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IMAGES Front cover: Melati Suryodarmo, 2015, photo courtesy of the artist.

OzAsia Festival is Australia’s leading international arts festival that is entirely dedicated

1-3. Melati Suryodarmo, Performing John Cage Song Books, 2015, video still courtesy of the artist.

Festival Centre’s dedicated focus on enhancing Australian-Asian cultural relationships

4. Melati Suryodarmo, My Fingers are the Triggers, 2007, ©Melati Suryodarmo

OzAsia Festival 2015 will be held from 24 September – 4 October. Under the direction

5. Melati Suryodarmo, Boundaries That Lie, 2004, video still courtesy of the artist.

theatre, dance, music, visual arts, film and food, with a cultural focus on the delights

6. Melati Suryodarmo, Perception of Patterns in Timeless Influence, 2007, ©Melati Suryodarmo

to engagement with Asia. Now in its ninth year, the festival is an integral part of Adelaide and engaging local Australian-Asian communities. of new Festival Director, Joseph Mitchell, it will be an exhilarant array of contemporary of Indonesia.

24,901 Miles is a world premiere live durational performance event commissioned by OzAsia Festival

ISBN: 978-0-9923539-1-9

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