Agung Kurniawan

Born 1968 in Jember, Java, Indonesia
Lives and works in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Agung Kurniawan has developed his artistic work within the field of concrete socio-cultural activism. He believes that the role of an artist is more than simply producing work, and that there are larger social responsibilities to be met. Both as a studio artist and an art activist, he takes up clear positions and his approach often leads him either down to street level or to intervening in bureau- cratic structures.
Kurniawan’s work is reputed to be fairly “coarse” due to themes of violence, politics and taboo subjects. The artist started out with book illustrations, drawings and comics, which offered a harsh, often satirical critique of Indonesian society at that time. With his drawing Happy Victim (1996), depicting people hanging upside down while laughing cheerfully, he won a 1996 Philip Morris Art Award and gained international recognition. At that time he stated in an interview: “My main theme is violence. I want to point out how society can live in the centre of violence and repression that is so suppressive they are not even aware of it.”
Kurniawan’s drawing Holy Family (1997) was included in the controversial Slot in the Box exhibition at Cemeti Art House that was heavily imbued with political subtexts. The drawing depicted a family of clowns resembling the family of President Suharto, who was still in power at the time. This drew such attention from au- thorities that the exhibition was almost shut down.
Kurniawan’s work in the 1990s is an example of the practices of the generation that signified the zeitgeist of the time: one that had grown up with the New Order and formed a movement for change, culminating in the reformation of 1998. Kurniawan continued to work with and critique this issue after Reformasi, with his installation Souvenirs from the Third World (1998). The work, which was recently presented in the exhibition Global Art 1989– Now at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, curated by Hans Belting, reflects Kurniawan’s unease with the phenomenon of Indonesia’s expul- sion from the forum of world politics. He felt the political events in Indonesia were a kind of exotic artefact, which was easily pawned off to other people.
After Reformasi, Kurniawan increasingly focused on taboo sub- jects such as sexual politics and personal guilt, which he explored through Christian analogies, as in the work Lapendos (2011) (La- pendos is an abbreviation of “Laki-Laki Penuh Dosa”/ A Man Full Of Sins). In this installation the artist presented a human figure based on his own body-cast, accompanied by monstrous and grotesque figures. This work was meant as an auto-critique of the trend of artists taking on as well as commodifying political issues after 1998.
Around 2006, Kurniawan started his trellis series (e.g. Pope and Mehmet, 2011, Soekarno, Art and Artist, 2012, and Family Photo 1974, 2012), exploring issues of memory, both collective and per- sonal. The series was inspired by an old family photo album from 1974, consisting of a photo diary of the artist’s mother during the last days of her dying father. The photo diary works like sequences of comic book panels that Kurniawan tried to recreate in a series of trellises. Hung on the walls the trellises and the shadows they cast represent the blurred memory recorded in the photo album. The interweaving of lines, shadows and memory was further devel- oped in works of social commentary such as Jakarta 1998 (2012), which depicted historical events and figures photographed in the media.
Recently, Kurniawan has been working on a series of “drawing machines.” Artist is Beautiful Machine (2011–2012), for example, is meant to engineer the various drawing styles of several Indonesian artists he regards as having their own particular characteristics. The drawing machines are embedded with ironic commentaries characterizing today’s artists as “drawing machines,” producing for the demands of the market.
Finally, the exploration of drawing, both conceptual and prac- tical, becomes Agung Kurniawan’s main artistic premise and the basis of his creative processes. As he says, “The strongest element of drawing is its documentary nature. In spite of this, it is unlike photography which records what is there; drawing is a kind of mental documentation. The most honest archives are those which note events before they occur. The process of making already tells a story about how drawings are given meaning.”

Agung Kurniawan, The Holy Kick, 2013, Welded, steel, paint, Various dimensions # KURN0004

Exhibitions

"Sip! Indonesian Art Today" - Exhibition View at ARNDT Berlin, April - June 2013 | Click on image to see more

"Sip! Indonesian Art Today" - Exhibition View at ARNDT Berlin, April - June 2013

SIP! INDONESIAN ART TODAY / SENI RUPA INDONESIA KINI

The past three generations of Indonesian Contemporary Art

Group show by ARNDT Berlin

27 April to 01 June 2013
Tue – Sat, 11am – 6pm

Please click here to watch a video of the "Sip! Indonesian Art Today" show in Berlin.

The exhibition "Sip! Indonesian Art Today" and the accompanying publication results from ARNDT’s recent focus on Southeast Asian art and the new Asian and Pacific art markets. Over the past four years Matthias Arndt has worked in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. His research, the past shows of Southeast Asian artists and the opening of ARNDT Singapore, the Asian showroom and office of ARNDT, makes Matthias Arndt one of the leading experts for contemporary Indonesian and Southeast Asian Art in Germany and Europe.

The exhibition "Sip! Indonesian Art Today", curated by Enin Supriyanto, is the 10th show dedicated to Southeast Asian art ARNDT is hosting in Singapore, Australia, Great Britain and Berlin. The 150 page publication "Sip! Indonesian Art Today" edited by Matthias Arndt and published at DISTANZ Verlag (ISBN 978-3-95476-007-7) is available in all bookstores.

The public talk "The last three decades of artistic production in Indonesia: 25 years of Cemeti Art House and the status of curating.” with Enin Supriyanto (curator) and Mella Jaarsma (artist), moderated by Katerina Valdivia Bruch (curator / critic) will take place at ARNDT Berlin on 27 April 2013 at 4 pm.

The exhibition presents over 40 works from all artistic mediums, painting, sculpture, installation, photography and film, by 16 contemporary artists from Indonesia. They belong to a larger community of artists who are actively shaping Indonesia’s dynamic developing contemporary art scene. If we consider their age and career development, the artists here represent 3 generations of contemporary art practice dating back from the late 1970s: beginning first with FX Harsono, one of the proponents of the Indonesian New Art Movement (Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru) founded in 1975 followed by a group of artists who emerged at a time when Indonesia was undergoing major socio-political transformations in its strive towards democracy during the late 1990s (Agung Kurniawan, Agus Suwage, Mella Jaarsma), the post-Reformasi (Reformation) generation of artists (Christine Ay Tjoe, Entang Wiharso, Rudi Mantofani, Handiwirman Saputra, Eko Nugroho, Syagini Ratna Wulan and Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo), and finally a generation of artists who have been active in the past decade, sophisticated operators of their own careers in a more or less stable and democratic Indonesia (Wedhar Riyadi, J. Ariadithya Pramuhendra, Wiyoga Muhardanto, Indieguerillas and Tromarama).

The generational differences do not only represent differing socio-political experiences in connection with the development of Indonesia’s society in the past three decades but also illustrates the differing socio-political contexts of the artists observations and artistic approaches that have changed and altered over the years.

The word “Sip” in Bahasa Indonesia may be a simple and modest one but it is full of meaning. While the origin of this word is unknown, it is a word that is used by nearly everyone every day. “Sip” is the briefest way to state that something – whether an art work, an event, an experience or anything – is good, of good quality, super or outstanding even. Like this word, and like the process of our ongoing global culture, we do not question the origin of an idea, but we consider how this idea can continue to grow and contribute to the interaction and civilization of the world. In a way, we can say that ‘Sip’ has no such thing as exotic cultural background, neither stereotypical cultural baggage. Whatever the case, the meaning is clear: good, great, outstanding.

For more information and images, please contact info@arndtberlin.com or +49 30 206 13870.

Please click here to download the press release as PDF file (English)

Please click here to download the press release as PDF file (German)