about Landing Soon #7 Yogyakarta

LANDING SOON # R3S Under The Influence

About The Exchange programme ‘Landing Soon‘:

Landing Soon is a three year exchange programme organised by Heden, The Haque, The Netherlands and Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. During a residency period of three months, Dutch artists as well as Indonesian artists are ‘landing’ in Yogyakarta. In LANDING SOON, the local, as well as the global, are researched through different themes, visions and conditions. Artists are given the opportunity to concentrate on their work and go into depth by experimenting and interacting with other artists, professionals and specific communities.

About our own project:

R3S Under The Influence

The project of Maarten Schepers and Ellen Rodenberg is called:

‘R3S Under The Influence’ named after a music album from the multidiscipline artist DJ Spooky.

We will stay from 2 mei until 31 july in Yogyakarta. After that date we will travel around. We have the intention to absorb the consequences of the artist in residence project in Yogyakarta. Everything what is mentioned in our plan (explaining later) we like to explore. Everything what comes on our way we can’t left aside , we will use.

Wimo Ambala Bayong is the other artist in residence. He lives and works in the same house. The Cemeti Studio Residency. Adress: Jl Tirtodipuran No. 24 Yogyakarta 55143

we intent to work hard and have a lot of fun (or the other way arround)

More details about our project:

We want to do resurge to the possibility’s of a location by any means.

This location should be an open space for meetings in art sense.

We want to respond on the situation we brought ourself s in.

This respons can be for each of us in an other way.

One part of the project is keeping up this weblog.

All the different aspects and consequences (including the fact that we are here with our 2 children, 8 and 11 years old) of our residency will appear in the log. The proces wich appears in the log is also one of the aspects of our project.

We hope that others will join in (despite the difficulties with the internet connection), and respond on the log

Our project is made possible by HEDEN, CEMETI ART HOUSE, STROOM and MCM

Maarten Schepers and Ellen Rodenberg     april/may 2008 The Hague/Yoyakarta

LANDING SOON #7 Press Release

(Cemeti Residency Studio Project, May-July 2008)

Presented and exhibited at Cemeti Art House, July 23 – 30, 2008

Open discussion with exhibition visitors on July 27, 2008, 7:30 p.m.

Participating residency artists:

1. Ellen Rodenberg(1955), background in painting. Graduated from the Royal Academy for the Arts in Den Haag, the Netherlands.
2. Wimo Ambala Bayang(1976), background in interior design from School for Modern Design, Yogyakarta, and photography from the Faculty of Photography at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, both in Yogyakarta.
3. Maarten Schepers(1957), background in sculpture. Graduated from the Royal Academy for the Arts in Den Haag, the Netherlands.

Ellen Rodenberg is a painter who, throughout the residency program, entrusted the ‘revitalization of painting’ to the attitudes and mentality of painting itself as a media in which color, form and painting conventions are revised through critical observation of the ‘celebration’ that emerges as a result of the differences of understanding global symbols, signs and icons in Yogyakarta. For example, the swastika symbol, which, in the Netherlands, haunts the society in the aftermath of World War II in Europe, is a popular ornamental decoration in Yogyakarta that is used as a badge and on various group and organizational flags. Balinese Hindus respect it and do not understand the trauma associated with the symbol.

Ellen also stretches the unrestrained attitudes towards copying, plagiarism, copy-paste, and creative copying that have been syncretically absorbed into this country’s cultural history. In two of Ellen’s installations, the initial reflection of this residency project’s explorations, i.e., the Chinese plastic product monster – dragonball dolls, children’s toys, kitchen equipment, shopping bags, and household decorations, most of which were bought at Progo Store in Yogyakarta – comically, but cleverly, indicate how painting conventions have nearly been swallowed and made impotent by the market.

Wimo Ambala Bayang is a smart photographer and video artist who observes the movements of his subjects, who vacillate between becoming the objects and subjects of his photos and videos. Although we are unaware of this vacillation, these observations bear criticism of the ’social snobism’ revealed in the rapid developments of this technology. In Wimo’s hands, photography and videos, with coarse clichés, encompass broad and general associations to documentaries and become a warehouse of comic interpretive games. His reflections and interpretations of this residency project, Landing Soon #7, comprise a captivating appeal: “Be calm! The Dutch are still far away!”

Is it true that this sentence reflects the life of the traditional community in Java that is slow and lazy? Or does it just simply and skillfully promote peace over a ‘loss’? To search for an angle and to position himself in the most accurate and funniest perspective, Wimo discussed and interacted with Maarten and Ellen, who are husband and wife, and who invited their two sons along in the residency program.

Maarten Schepers, a sculptor from the same art academy as Ellen, allows himself be possessed by the unique, intricate structure of a city. A dynamic city moves back and forth between tradition and modernization. This, the primary idea that inspires Maarten’s work, is very strategic and fortunate. It guides him to understand the environment of Yogyakarta quickly. Many experimental ideas and spontaneous statues and installations developed out of Maarten’s drawings that were quite architectural in nature.

‘House of Eggs’ is one of Maarten’s installations produced during this residency. A house within a house (Cemeti, in this case), where Maarten invites visitors to hesitate entering a dark, dirty space and step on many rotten eggs, or to enter and move carefully through it without encountering any risks, or to be satisfied with just peeking in the doorway, not daring to enter?

For almost three months, these three artists from Den Haag, Yogyakarta and Rotterdam have ‘landed’, met and lived together in one house-studio-laboratory of ideas-workshop and training area of the Cemeti Residency program at Jl. Tirtodipuran 24, Yogyakarta.

The vision of the residency, which has become the mainstay of critical and strategic attention, is: Locality within Globality as it is questioned and reexamined by artists along with art activists, in as many themes, ideas/concepts and artistic medias as possible.

To support this vast three-year vision, various programs (see the following section regarding the LANDING SOON Residency Program) have been planned, implemented and reviewed, by Cemeti Art House, participating artists, educational institutions, non-government organizations, and related cultural venues, such as museums and galleries, at the international level. The three primary themes of the program are: to stimulate creative production and ideas by refreshing the observation and research of the local social-political-cultural environment in Yogyakarta; to assist art and community movements through workshops, discussions, seminars, and courses at various formal and non-formal educational venues; and diving into the midst of the discourse on contemporary world art by promoting active participation of artists in forums such as biennales, triennials, international residencies (see the paragraph regarding active participation of LANDING SOON residency artists in international forums, latest news at www.cemetiarthouse.com)

About the LANDING SOON Residency Program

Concrete information on the Landing Soon residency program since 2006 can be broken down into three general categories:

a. period of creatively producing ideas of aesthetics and ethics;

b. period of assisting art and community movements in Yogyakarta;

c. period of encouraging young artists to dive into the discourse of the contemporary art world.

The Cemeti Residency Studio is supported by an infrastructure of one studio manager, an assistant artist who is rotated every three months, and a night guard and household staff. The participating artists are free of financial burdens for accommodations and living costs for three months. The artists receive financial support for experimentation of ideas, aesthetic production and preparation of a catalogue. The exhibition and presentation space at Cemeti Art House is available for one week.

The initial three weeks following arrival are for introductions and adjustment to the climate. The artists are required to make a presentation on the development of their individual projects in the second or third week to a forum of artists from various disciplines, art activists, art critics, journalists, etc. This forum is intended as an effort to neutralize the curriculum vitae references of the individual artists, so that they will integrate and mix more easily with their environment, and better understand and appreciate each other.

At the same time, this forum serves as a witness that their residencies have begun. During the first four to six weeks, the artists, both individually and collectively must design a form of discussion around their works through a lecture course or seminar, workshop and training, along with appreciation in another form intended as a form of assisting art in the community. With the passing of the first six weeks, the following weeks through the closing of the exhibition and presentation are the peak of their creative work.

As selected artists, they receive assistance, guidance, and support from the studio manager through weekly progress reports. Support for their ideas and explanations from expert resources, including anthropologists, architects, geologists, curators, sociologists, non-government organization activists, traditional artists, puppet masters, musicians, craftspeople, artisans, film makers, and other experts, can be arranged by the studio manager to support the creative work processes.

Selection for participating artists in the LANDING SOON residency

Every residency period lasts three months. There is one local artist (from Indonesia) and one Dutch artist. The selection of Dutch artists is conducted by Heden, Kunst van Nu (Heden, Art from Now), The Hague, which was formerly known as Artoteek Den Haag, while Cemeti Art House conducts the selection of local artists.

Cemeti Art House conducts a screening through proposals of residency artist candidates that are submitted by post or e-mail. Cemeti Art House also conducts direct appointments based on potential candidates who are considered to be capable and fulfill the criteria, have worked with a particular media for more than five years, actively explore ideas, and interact or communicate easily in English.

The two participating artists will have an assistant who will introduce them to the social cultural art network in Yogyakarta, bring them materials, introduce them to traditional handicraft techniques, home and industries, and artisans in Yogyakarta. In this way, it is hoped that the artist participants can avoid any technical obstacles in their artistic productions. Rather, they encounter more challenges and encouragement to work on and develop their ideas and inspirations. The assistant artist in this residency serves as the resident artists’ right hand.

Active participation of resident LANDING SOON artists in the international discourse of art

The interaction of the resident artists during the art and community activities has become strategic training to prepare the artists for participation in the international discourse of art. discussions and face-to-face encounters in ‘artist talks’, seminars, and formal courses for education and art training at academies such as the Indonesian Institute for the Arts (ISI) in Yogyakarta and Solo, Jakarta Institute for the Arts in Jakarta, the Architecture department at Duta Wacana University in Yogyakarta, the Anthropology department at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, galleries and non-commercial museums, alternative teaching spaces, and public art education venues, such as Kinoki, Kine Club Yogyakarta, French-Indonesian Institute, Cakrawala Learning Laboratory, Papermoon, Insomnium in Malang, Children’s Studio at Taman Budaya, Yakkum Center for Handicapped Children, junior and senior high schools in Yogyakarta, non-government organizations, and study centers for urban development, such as Green Map.

Not many contemporary artists, curators and young art aficionados have actively participated in international art forums, such as Biennales and Triennials, in the last decade. Just the opposite, the overflowing of participation by Indonesian artists in auctions, art fairs and competitions to compete for nominal prizes represents a unique global phenomenon that demands attention.

LANDING SOON #1 artist, Arya Panjalu, continued his work in a residency program in The Hague, the Netherlands, with Sara Nuyteman. Tintin Wulia, a LANDING SOON #5 artist, participated in an exhibition with 35 international artists in Vanabbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Jompet, a LANDING SOON #4 artist, is preparing new work for the Yokohama Triennial this November. Finally, Wimo Ambala Bayang is preparing for a group exhibition with Dutch artists in The Hague, after finishing a touring exhibition of the historical project, ‘The Past, The Forgotten Times’. (Read the latest news at www.cemetiarthouse.com)

Cemeti Art House and Studio

Yogyakarta, July 17, 2008