ART|JOG – Yogyakarta’s most loved contemporary art fair and one of the biggest art fairs in the region, which has grown rapidly over the years and this year marked a decade as ART|JOG celebrated its tenth year.
If you’ve never heard of ART|JOG then you should definitely get in the know. Keep reading, I’ll tell you all about it. 😉
ART|JOG launched in 2008, when it was the Jogja Art Fair {JAF} and was part of the Yogyakarta Art Festival, however ART|JOG split off and became independent in 2009, including curators, selected special themes and artists, and commissioned artists to remodel the facade of the building, which was originally Taman Budaya Yogyakarta. Wanting to create an international event, in 2010 it was renamed ART|JOG.
ART|JOG is the anchor event for the Jogja Art Weeks, a month-long festival of openings and events around the Yogyakarta Special Regency, which has developed into an art and cultural tourism godsend, attracting national and international art lovers, industry insiders and collectors. This year ART|JOG|10 exhibited over 120 artworks comprising of; two-and three-dimensional works, installations, videos, site-specific objects and performances from 73 national and international artists.
I’ve been a big fan of ART|JOG since I stumbled upon it back in 2013 {you can read about ART|JOG|13 here} and then I went back to Jogja in 2014 {you can read about ART|JOG|14 – Part I here and ART|JOG|14 – Part II here} and after missing it for a couple of years, I finally had tickets booked to Jogja and first on my itinerary was checking out ART|JOG|10.
This years ART|JOG was held at the historical site of the Jogja National Museum, which was previously a campus of Akademi Seni Rupa Indonesia {ASRI} – one of the largest and first formal art institutions in Indonesia. It seemed quite fitting for ART|JOG|10 to be held here. This years curatorial theme was; “Changing Perspective: The Challenge for the Artist”. Beyond the installations there are stage performances, silent films, open air cinema and more. ART|JOG continues to grow each year, a little bigger and a little stronger and a bit more influential as a solid platform from which to contemplate today’s political and social issues through the arts.
I enjoy attending ART|JOG as I LOVE the art, I love seeing the various artworks and installations that make-up ART|JOG. I’m fascinated with the blend of art and culture and how these influence the artworks. However, unfortunately, most of the crowds I see there are young locals looking for photo opportunities only. ART|JOG has become highly “instagrammable” and this seems to have attracted vast pods of young selfie-addicts who want a selfie with every piece of artwork in the fair. And as much as I also love an instagrammable photo opportunity {come on, we all do!}, I want a photo of the artworks – the artworks only, not a selfie!
Perhaps my expectations for ART|JOG|10 were too high, as I had absolutely LOVED previous exhibitions, I’m not sure, perhaps it was just me {and the fact that I was toddler wrangling whilst trying to take in and contemplate the artworks!} or whether it was this year’s theme and the artist’s interpretation of it that didn’t particularly inspire me or what? But, unfortunately, this years ART|JOG wasn’t a fav of mine…it didn’t seem to have that WOW factor about it, which was kind of disappointing. Although, saying that, I should add that some particular artworks and installations were awesome and these totally grabbed my attention, and these are the artworks that I’d like to share with you in this post.
Okay, let’s do this. Let’s check out some cool art! First up…
The Commissioned Artist of ART|JOG|10 – Wedhar Riyadi ‘Floating Eyes’
The commissioned art installation by Wedhar Riyadi, {a young artist from Yogyakarta} entitled ‘Floating Eyes’ was THE highlight of ART|JOG|10, well in my eyes anyway! {See what I did there?! Hehehe}
Riyadi’s concept as explained on its placard:
This piece of work is an attempt to reconstruct the space for us to meet, play and maintain the social interaction in this digital era. Social media has blurred the concept of private and public space. This new paradox, which is the changing of perspective in interpreting the physical interaction, is a new challenge that we urgently need to answer.
It’s a true rumination on this year’s curatorial theme, “Changing Perspective: The Challenge for the Artist” was to encourage us to look at the way we see things. In this day and age where we are given so many avenues to voice our perspectives and opinions to the world through a simple touch of a button; on the internet and social media, we can be blinded to other perspectives. Changing Perspective is about looking at paradigms to understand two differing opinions and ideas, and to encourage people to have an open mind in facing an increasingly complex world.
Curator of ART|JOG|10; Bambang “Toko” Witjaksono says:
If the West mostly uses science approach (knowledge), then the East cultural, tradition and common sense, things considered less representing the knowledge of modern society globally. That’s what the artist in ART|JOG should respond, the paradox of those two perspectives, and hopefully by embracing both, and along with technological advances, the artist can take a fresh look at how they work from various point of views, not only from technical aspect but also the interpretation. Hopefully, it can enhance and achieve beyond what we have had and have experienced now.
A collection of my favourite artworks from ART|JOG|10
After buying entrance tickets, and upon walking through the main entrance, I was met by this artwork in the middle of the entrance hall. WOW! Pretty cool!
As I turned the corner and headed down the main hallway, I spotted artworks by one of my fav artists; Arwin Hidayat {I can spot his works from a mile away!}. Love me a bit of contemporary batik!
As I wondered through the exhibition, the next pieces that caught my eye were by Angki Purbandono. The first art work was ‘Souvenir from Tangkahan’ – such an inspiring piece with an honest concept behind it.
POST JUNGLE
This piece is a result of residency and research done by Angki Purbandono, with support from Nicholas Saputra, in Tangkahan, North Sumatra in the middle of 2016. It is a pilot project that attempts to reveal the story and the problem of nature conservation in Indonesia.
The aim of this project is to describe the condition and the problem in a location where society and natural environment have a close relation, from the point of view of an artist, and hopefully they can get a new point of view aside from the point of view of scientific research, activism and journalism that they usually get.
The expected result of this project is an “honest” story, the one which can be shown to public through a universal visual art language, and hopefully from there it can raise their curiosity and concern towards environmental issues in Indonesia.
Spotted another fav artist of mine; Samsul Arifin.
Check out this amazing art piece by “Blankon” – I could have stood there looking at it forever! So much to take in and the journey it takes you on to view the piece from various angles, changing the perspective of the piece and seeing new things from one angle that you couldn’t see before. I felt like it was a true representation of this year’s theme of; “Changing Perspective”. I enjoyed it a lot. So cool!
So, there you have a it, a few of my favs from ART|JOG|10. Hope I have given you a taster of the awesome artworks that you can find annually at the wonderful and unique ART|JOG art fairs. I think it’s really important to expand our minds and explore traditional and contemporary art in Indonesia.
If you happen to be visiting Indonesia next year, particularly Central Java, ART|JOG|11 has already been announced to be held at Jogja National Museum starting on the 4th May 2018.
Have you ventured to Jogja? Don’t you just love it?
Have you been to ART|JOG before?
Planning on visiting Jogja next year?
Are you needing some creative art in your travel itinerary?
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