Artist Profiles > S > Melati Suryodarmo
Melati Suryodarmo’s performances deal with the relationship between a human body, the culture it belongs to and a constellation of its lived conditions. Through the presence, she compiles, extracts, conceptualises and translates some phenomena or subjects into movements, actions, and gestures that are specific to her performance. Melati Suryodarmo’s performances are concerned with 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 discuss identity, energy, politics and relationships between the body and its environments.
Melati Suryodarmo studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, Germany under Marina Abramovic. Suryodarmo has presented her works in various international festivals and exhibitions since 1996, including the 50th Venice Biennale, 2003, and “Marking the Territory” at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Other presentations include: “Egon Schiele: Love and Death”, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (2005); Videobrasil, Sao Paolo (2005); Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, 52nd Venice Biennale Dance Festival (2007); KIASMA Helsinki (2007); Manifesta7, Bolzano, Italy (2008); “In Transit” Festival, HKW Berlin (2009); Luminato festival of the arts, Toronto, (2012); Asia Pacific Triennale, QAGoMA Brisbane (2015); Guangzhou Triennale, Guangdong, China (2015); Singapore Biennale, Singapore (2016); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea (2017); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany (2018); National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia (2019); and Asia Society Museum, New York (2019).
Since 2007, Suryodarmo has been organising an annual Performance Art Laboratory Project and Undisclosed Territory performance art event in Solo, Indonesia. In 2012, she founded “Studio Plesungan”, an art space for performance art laboratory. In 2017, she served as the Artistic Director of the Jakarta Biennale 2017. She currently lives and works between Gross Gleidingen, Germany and Solo, Indonesia.
Click here to read our exclusive interview with Melati Suryodarmo.