Gervasuti Foundation and Arthub Asia
Third Realm, a site specific project by Jompet Kuswidananto
For Immediate Release
Fondamenta S. Ana (Via Garibaldi)
Castello 993, Venice
5 June 2011 – 29 September 2011
Opening date: Saturday, June 4 2011
from 2pm to 9pm.
Exhibition Address: Fondamenta S. Ana (Via Garibaldi) Castello 993.
Contact: Fiona Biggiero
Email: fiona.biggiero@gmail.com
www.gervasutifoundation.com
www.arthubasia.org
(Venice – May 3rd 2011) -- ArtHub Asia and the Gervasuti Foundation are proud to host Indonesian artist, Jompet (Kuswidananto), during the International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, the world's oldest and most prestigious contemporary art event. Jompet's site-specific projects deliberately play with the notion of subversion. The artist tackles universally accepted opposites such as colonial versus post-colonial, conservative vs. modern, democracy vs. autocracy thereby constructing a ‘new cultural paradigm'- creating a “grey space”.
Yogyakarta-based Jompet is known for his delicate multimedia installations that often combine video, sound and kinetic sculptures. For the Biennale events, and in conjunction with the mission of the Gervasuti Foundation, the artist has constructed a site-specific project titled: Third Realm, a site specific project by Jompet Kuswidananto. The installation work is based on the idea of phantoms: the artist has literally constructed mechanized ghostly figurines and positioned them in such a way as to recall a parade-like organization. As the artist comments: “as a carnival, the exhibition is a celebration of embracing the difference, aliens, and openness. It takes its roots in recurring combinations and radically open perspectives”.
These figures are neither embodied, nor flamboyantly masked. Instead, they relinquish their bodies, featuring only fragments – a hat, a few garments similar to colonial military dress, a pair of shoes - all suspended from a ceiling. Some of them have drum kits in front of them that periodically beat a sporadic percussion.
Presented during ArtHub Asia's Silk Roads symposium held in Bangkok in 2009 after its first appearance at Yokohama Triennale, this installation represents Jompet's personal journey through the complex, colonial history of Indonesia and Java and is the result of his long-standing research into the compendium of psychosomatic traces of a bloody past. His work is also a fragile description of the integrated nature of Java's many identities -- a land of many people and languages where religious syncretism brings Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and animism together.
Once renowned as the world's first international trade centre, where far-flung cultures from Asia and Europe intermingled despite the cynical tolerance of its inhabitants, the city of Venice itself invites a continued cultural exploration from within. Positioned within Venetian arches and interiors, the installation is set to tackle not only the repercussions of national identity and religion-based politics, but also the very foundations of democracy and its homogenizing effects upon society.
Jompet is the kind of artist that ArtHub Asia has been promoting, supporting and collaborating with since 2007. Tectonic shifts across social-political systems are all upon us, and this project presents an irresistible opportunity to help break through some of the static that exists in the reading of East vs. West. Disseminating its voice and platform now to and across Venice, ArtHub Asia treads on the borders of new territories of challenge.
About Gervasuti Foundation
The Gervasuti Foundation is an alternative interdisciplinary art platform promoting an experimental Preservation-Through-Change Project which aims to be both local and international: preserving the uniquely inventive and rich cultural traditions of Venetian history through the promotion and production of interdisciplinary contemporary art practice.
About ArtHub Asia
Spearheaded by a dynamic team of curators and producers — Davide Quadrio, Defne Ayas and Qiu Zhijie — ArtHub Asia is a non-profit contemporary art organization devoted to art creation across Asia. In collaboration with museums and other public and private spaces and institutions, ArtHub Asia initiates and delivers projects through a sustained dialogue with performance and new media artists.
Technical information
Title: Third Realm, a site specific project by Jompet Kuswidananto
Organized by: ArtHub Asia and Gervasuti Foundation
Curated by: Defne Ayas and Davide Quadrio
Artist: Jompet Kuswidananto
Location: Fondamenta S. Ana (Via Garibaldi) Castello 993, Venice
Period: June 5th 2011- September 29th 2011
Opening time: Tues- Sun 10.30 am – 18.00 pm
Admission: free
Catalogue: designed by Sari Handayani, edited by Alia Swastika and Davide Quadrio
In collaboration with: FarEastFarWest Collection and Ark Galerie, Jakarta
Collateral Events: Saturday, June 4 2011, 3 pm: Arthub Asia, Gervasuti Foundation and Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation jointly host drinks and informal talks by friends and colleagues including Charles Esche, Ho Tzu Nyen, Kim Hyunjin, Prince Claus Fund's representatives, Tayeba Lipi, Sabina Santarossa and many others. (at Fondamenta S. Ana (Via Garibaldi) Castello 995)
Information: www.arthubasia.org
www.gervasutifoundation.com
