Melati Suryodarmo

 

Melati Suryodarmo’s performances deal with the relationship between a human body, a culture in which it belongs and a constellation where it lives. Through the present, she compiles, extracts, conceptualises and translates some phenomena or subjects into movement, actions, and gestures that are specified to her performance. Melati Suryodarmo´s performances concern cultural, social and political aspects, which she articulates through her psychological and physical body. Her performances feature elements of physical presence and visual art to talk about identity, energy, politics and relationships between the body and the environments surrounding it. Melati Suryodarmo is an Indonesian-born visual artist who has been living and working in Germany since 1994. She graduated from the Universitas Padjadjaran Bandung in social and political science, and studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, Germany. She was a student of Marina

Abramovic and finished her post-graduate (Meisterschule), focusing in performance art and Raum Konzept. Suryodarmo has presented her works at various international festivals and exhibitions since 1996, including the 50th Venice Biennale 2003, Marking the Territory, IMMA Dublin. e.t.c. In 2005 Melati Suryodarmo performed at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam as part of the exhibition on the life of Egon Schiele; Videobrasil Sao Paolo (2005), Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, 52nd Venice Biennale Dance Festival (2007), KIASMA Helsinki (2007), Manifesta7, in Bolzano, Italy (2008), the In Transit festival, HKW Berlin (2009), and the Luminato Festival of the Arts, Toronto, 2012. For

the last six years Suryodarmo has been presenting her works in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries. For the Padepokan Lemah Putih Solo Indonesia, she has been organizing an annual Performance Art Laboratory Project and “undisclosed territory” performance art event in Solo Indonesia since 2007.