Following up on its widely popular 2011 exhibition ‘Beyond the East’, which featured 15 established Indonesian artists, the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma (MACRO) will host “SHOUT!: Indonesian Contemporary,” an exhibition of works by 11 emerging artists who have never previously had shown in Italy before.
The exhibition, running until November 11, was co-curated by Bryan Collie of Melbourne Fine Art Gallery, and Santy Saptari, an independent Singapore-based curator who recently joined Peal Lam Gallery. The exhibition focuses on survival and existential issues, explains Saptari, with some of the artists drawing inspiration from personal life experiences and others taking a step back and commenting on their surroundings.
The artists are: Aditya Novali, Andita Purnama, Angki Purbandono, Bestrizal Besta, Erika Ernawan, Gatot Pudjiarto, Gusmen Heriadi, I Gusti Ngurah Udiantara, Maria Indria Sari, Sigit Santoso, and Yudi Sulisto.
Saptari notes they are "responsive and reflective towards what is happening in their own local environment as well as globally. Their works talk about life, struggle, survival, and existential issues. Basically what it means to be human in today's complex society.” adding, “They are questioning and challenging contemporary issues that we are facing in our everyday lives, which makes these works relevant to so many people no matter their culture.”
Two powerful installations include Andita Purnama’s “Singing in the Smokey room”, a morphing mass made of woven cassette tape ribbons suspended in mid-air that represent the artist’s memories, and Maria Indriasari’s “Destiny and Regret and Postpartum Syndrome: Sinked,” featuring three life-size dolls lying hopelessly on a ladder, a reflection of the artist’s conflicted feelings between individual freedom and responsibility.
To see more artworks, click on the slideshow.