ASIIK City Artist Profile: Bayu Widodo

Second in our series of artist profiles, check out Bayu Widodo!

(video by Tuff Guts)

The Inter Location Project prepares for their second series of collaborations in October and November 2011, this time in Melbourne, Australia.

The festival is called ASIIK CIty and aims to bridge urban and community art practices between Australia and Indonesia.

Bayu Widodo is a prolific artist from Yogyakarta. Practicing across the fields of painting, printmaking, sculpture and street art, he has exhibited throughout Europe and Australia. He has also been a crucial agent for community in his work with Taring Padi political arts collective and his establishment of Survive Garage. Bayu is a guest in Australia of ILP.

ASIIK City artist profile: LoveHateLove

Take a peep, the first in a series of profiles on the artists in the upcoming ASIIK City festival.
Asiiiik!!


ASIIK City artist profile: LoveHateLove from ILP on Vimeo.
(video by Tuff Guts)

ASIIK City is a festival organised by the Inter Location Project planned to occur in Melbourne (and a little bit in Sydney) across the months of October and November in 2011.

The aim of ASIIK City is to bridge urban and community art practices between the two cities Jogjakarta, Indonesia, and Melbourne, Australia.

LoveHateLove is a visiting artist from Jogjakarta involved in the creation of ASIIK City. He's a street artist, a Hip Hip MC, a puppeteer, a fixed gear rider, and powerful community agent.

✌✌IN STREET ART WE TRUST✌✌

A LOOK THE WORK FROM 'TRANS-FIGURATIONS - INDONESIAN MYTHOLOGIES' AT ESPACE CULTUREL LOUIS VUITTON IN PARIS

Here is a link to a slide show of some of the works from TRANSFIGURATIONS - INDONESIAN MYTHOLOGIES featuring Bayu Widodo currently showing at ESPACE CULTUREL LOUIS VUITTON IN PARIS

M P FIKARIS IN INHERENT VICE AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA 16TH JULY UNTIL 14TH AUGUST

SNOTRAG FEATURES IN NEUROBLASTO MAGAZINE FROM MEXICO AND IN PILOT OF CONTEMPORARY MELBOURNE STREET ARTS

Snotrag also has work in TUNNEL VISION the latest exhibition on at PLATFORM
until July 30
 
Look here to discover Snotrag amidst a myriad of talented contemporaries in this online book.

and here:

ILP PRESENTS : ASIIK CITY FESTIVAL

ASIIK CITY Festival, presented by the Inter-Location Project (ILP), aims to invigorate and strengthen cross cultural community networks via a series of artistic events and collaborations planned to occur in October and November of 2011.

ASIIK CITY includes a diverse line-up of established and emerging artists from multiple disciplines and cultural contexts. Australian artists include SIMPLETOWN WORX, Georg Whelan, Michael Fikaris, Roda Roda, Snotrag, and Tuff Guts. Indonesian artists are Bayu Widodo, El Kampretto and LOVEHATELOVE . 

The overwhelming experience of community experienced by Melbourne ILP artists in Yogyakarta was the genesis for initiating this project in Australia. ASIIK CITY aims to explore, through the action of creative skillsharing and cultural collaborations, the factors accounting for such strong and vibrant creative communities in Indonesia and to examine how this can be developed and established here.

ILP via ASIIK CITY will facilitate events not only appealing within artistic communities but extend more broadly to the wider community. These events will include  Community Murals, Performances, a group exhibition and workshops featuring activities such as Screen-printing and Bicycle Construction. These artistic actions will emphasise process rather than the singularity of simply outcome and simultaneously augment a space for dialogue based around the ideas of alternative networks.

The word Asiik is an Indonesian slang term meaning Awesome. Cities sometimes have the potential of being alienating spaces. Virtual panopticons of Moloch proportions. Whilst recognising that collectively people are a product of their environment, they are also agents invested with the power of change. Under this banner ILP aims to build an ASIIK CITY. A place where everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate. Where artistic process isn't separated from the community and community isn't separated from the individual.

ILP believes community is something created by the actions between us. A process that's ultimately selfless, beyond economic thresholds and thus immeasurably valuable.

BAYU WIDODO EXHIBITS AT ESPACE CULTUREL LOUIS VUITTON IN PARIS

For its 16th exhibition, the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton continues its regular exploration of emerging artistic scenes in distant countries with the presentation of Trans-Figurations - Indonesian Mythologies. Starting June 24th - October 23rd 2011, the Espace Culturel invites visitors to discover an energetic and effervescent generation of Indonesian artists.
Consisting of more than seventeen thousand islands and a population of two hundred and forty million inhabitants, Indonesia is the fourth most highly populated country in the world. Nowadays, it is a secular democracy in which all religious movements live side by side. At the centre of the island of Java is the city of Yogyakarta, a real “hive of artistic activity” marked by its ancient beliefs, its history and its geography, which are a continual source of inspiration for artists. There, at the foot of the Merapi Volcano (one of the most active in the world), lives the majority of the eleven artists whose work will be displayed. They have come to Paris to produce a new work or reconfigure specially selected artworks, showcased by Alain Batifoulier’s decisively contemporary scenography.
The Christian term “Transfiguration” seems to correspond to this desire for change, with Agung Kurniawan’s sculptures, which bring traditional shadow theatres back to life, and with Heri Dono’s contemporary angels. In the videos “War of Java” and “Pilgrims and Plagues”, Jompi Jompet evokes the spirits of the ancestors and transposes the traditional dances and processions into other spaces. Arie Dyanto’s “autofictions”, Bayu Widodo’s poetic and narrative drawings and Ariadhitya Parmuhendra’s “Christian” drawings question both the place of the artist and the very status of Indonesian society. Tintin Wulia’s installation/performance expresses both the randomness and the determinism of the notion of nationality in a country that has experienced several occupations and has built its identity based on the upheavals of its history. The humorous hybrid figures that illustrate Eko Nugroho’s embroideries and wall paintings along with Mella Jaarsma’s “Fire-eaters” installed in the window display on rue de Bassano become the new heroes of a make-believe contemporary mythology. The architect Eko Prawoto has - with great simplicity - built an imposing modernist temple with over 1,800 bamboo canes, while director and producer Garin Nugroho deploys a video presentation in several chapters, which revolves around a sculpture, the symbol of the protective Mother.
Like the works presented in the Trans-Figurations - Indonesian Mythologies exhibition, Java depicts the change in the continuity of an earth that unceasingly expresses itself, moving and groaning, in both the literal and figurative sense, expressive and animated, strong and fragile.
Artists: Heri Dono, Arie Dyanto, Mella Jaarsma, Jompi Jompet, Agung Kurniawan, Eko Nugroho, Garin Nugroho, Ariadyhitya Pramuhendra, Eko Prawoto, Bayu Widodo, Tintin Wulia

Exhibition curator: Hervé Mikaeloff 

Exhibition set designers: Alain Batifoulier and Simon de Tovar

Bayu was featured in this article by Dazed Digital's ARTS & CULTURE section

Below: Images of three of Bayu's pieces from the exhibition