Hong-Kong webmagazine Cobo has just published my interview with Indonesian artist Sri Astari Rasjid. Astari’s art is a great take on Javanese traditions and is highly empowering, a true elevation of the gutsy girl and the strong woman. I have admired the artist for a long time and it was great to get to talk with her.
Here is the link to the interview
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The Hong-Kong based magazine Cobo has just published my interview with artist Fendry Ekel. Ekel moved from Indonesia to the Netherlands in the ’80s, where he studied art mentored by top-notch artists such as Luc Tuymans and Michelangelo Pistoletto.
Growing up in a family with a military background, for Ekel being an artist was an intentional choice. Painting is his medium of selection, and he is aware that the visual and conceptual aspects of an artwork go hand in hand. In his recent solo show “1987” at Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Fendry Ekel recreated a mental journey of the mankind through a series of monumental paintings.
Here’s the link to the interview
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The warm spring sun has not only been responsible for flushing us TeenPress reporters out of our den in Pietralata. It has also compelled us to engage in the “good deeds” dear to Collodi. My colleague Andrea and I have been sent by our Charlie to the “Good Deeds Day”, an international event which in Rome took place in the Circo Massimo.
Leaving our usual cynicism at home, we tried to understand what was about this day that would remind us to be better people. What we found is that this gathering was an opportunity for associations and organizations to meet and let citizens know of their relentless commitment to the “good”.
Likewise, individuals engaged in ideals could come together. We found out that the idea of what “good” looked like was different for everyone. What was shared though was a great energy – whether it was strawberry-clad evangelical or a Mexican wise woman fighting for an alternative version of their flag, everybody was in high spirits. Enjoy the video!
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I’m a big fan of reading how writers organize their research and how they put their books together. I figured it would be interesting to detail the way I’m working at my new book on young artists in Singapore. In this post I’ll walk you through the first few stages from the preliminary research to the first draft.
First phase: preliminary research. I read articles about Singapore art scene and books on Singapore urbanism, political and economical situation. I interviewed Lee Wen when he was in Rome, I met up with Italian artists who went to Singapore on a residency, and talked to a couple of Singaporean curators visiting Italy, included Paul Khoo. I stayed two weeks in Paris for the Singapour en France event, composed by the Paris Art Fair and the exhibition “Secret Archipelago”. In both case I interviewed artists, curators and gallery owners. Back home, I talked with via skype to other Singaporean artists, mainly for magazine articles. Finally, I went to Milan to visit the exhibition “Bright S’pore” at Primo Marella gallery and saw some works in person.
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My series on studio visits is finally back! During my reportage in Singapore I had the chance to snoop around the working and sometimes also living space of local artists. First up is a wonderful Italian artist who now calls the Lion City home: Giada Tagliamonte aka Zada Tagli. Her work is delicate and poetic, and although she’s inspired by eminent figures of Italian culture, such as Giotto and Umberto Eco, the imaginary she evokes is really universal. You will soon read my interview to her, which I realized in November – but for now I’ll let the images speak for themselves.
I have to admit the video reports with the TeenPress guys was something I was missing from my life. We are finally back with a new micro-series with the self-explanatory name “Giovani Creativi”. For these installments creatives of all stripes join us in our studio in Pietralata, Rome. We chat about their artistic practice, creative process, everyday life and day-to-day struggles. We have started with Cristiano Quagliozzi, painter, sculptor, installation and performance artist, who opens up about his upcoming project and gives us his definition of artist. Enjoy the video!
“Exoticism is an endlessly fascinating topic and an ongoing subject of exploration for me. On one hand exoticism is a necessary tool for curiosity. It has something of the infatuation in a way. When you fall in love with someone, you project your fantasies on them – which of course have nothing to do with the actual person and everything to with those damn adventures of Wolverine, Psylocke and Jubilee in Madripoor – which totally screwed up your brain as a teenager. Anyway, that confused exotic approach is necessary in order to take the next step to get closer to your subject and learn. Exoticism becomes dangerous when it’s taken at face value. When it is not the starting point for further explorations, but it becomes a stereotype to pigeonhole people and cultures. Not surprisingly many Indonesian artists and artists with a non-western background play a lot around this concept. They reverse roles, make fun of stereotypes and show potential dangers connected to them.”
I have recently been interviewed by photojournalist Stefano Romano for the Indonesian webmagazine Baltyra. In the interview we chat a bit about my book “Arte Contemporanea in Indonesia, un’introduzione“, discuss the developments of art in Indonesia and talk tradition, censorship and exoticism.
Here’s the link to the interview
The Australian webmagazine RAVEN has just published my interview with Melbourne artist Sam Leach. I met Sam at Palazzo Bembo, in Venice, and we talked about the artist’s work in Personal Structures, a collateral exhibition to the Venice Biennale.
Here’s the link to the article
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Sooo… updates from my life! In the middle of my usual freelance hustling and my book launch, I have also took a new collaboration on. I’m talking about my debut as video journalist for a news agency run by a cultural association in Rome, an experience which I find both exciting and challenging. The whole team is great; they are genuine, interesting and friendly people. Then of course, talking and doing interviews in front of a camera is a relatively new experience for me. Prior to that, I’ve only took part in a series of video interviews in artists’ studios, but here I’m basically presenting the whole thing. The guys have been merciful and my first report has been about an event at MAXXI, the contemporary art museum of Rome – so at least I was playing in my home court.
My interview with Aussie artist Alasdair McLuckie has just been published on Trouble Magazine with the title “Modernism on Gertrude”. The interview is part of my reportage about emerging artists in Melbourne and it’s my eighth feature on Trouble!
Here the link to the interview
Here the link to the online version of the magazine
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In 2012 I interviewed artist Angki Purbandono for my reportage about contemporary art in Indonesia for Art a Part of Cult(ure). That time I had the chance to snap some pictures around his studio/house filled with the weirdest objects. That was not surprising, considering that Angki is well know for his scannographies, namely giant scans of everyday objects unusually associated, defamiliarized by the size and the black background. Even if his photographs look as if they would have been taken with a complex set of lights, Angki revealed me that his only tool was a normal scanner – which of course, I didn’t fail to photograph. As for Angki himself, you could guess his personality from his body language and shirt. He is a great chap!
Naima Morelli is an arts writer and journalist specialized in contemporary art from Asia-Pacific and the MENA region.
She has written for the Financial Times, Al-Jazeera, The Art Newspaper, ArtAsiaPacific, Internazionale and Il Manifesto, among others, and she is a regular contributor to Plural Art Mag, Middle East Monitor and Middle East Eye as well as writing curatorial texts for galleries.
She is the author of three books on Southeast Asian contemporary art.
Reach out: contact [at] naimamorelli.com
Published! Interview with Reko Rennie on Global Comment
My interview with Australian artist Reko Rennie has just been published on the webmagazine Global Comment with the title “Aboriginal Royalty at the Venice Biennale: Interview with artist Reko Rennie”. This interview is part part of my research about artists in Melbourne.
Here’s the link to the article
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