Cobo has just published my interview with Singaporean artist Jeremy Sharma, titled: “Artists As The Arbiter of Knowledge in The Information Era”.
We did the interview in Rome, in a cafè near Via di Ripetta, after a bit of walking around that side of the Eternal City, and talked about his residency at the Stelva Foundation, in Desenzano del Garda, and his art practice in general.
Here is the link to the interview
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When all your favourite things come together, you can’t help writing about them. In the case of this interview with the great video art and new media pioneer Krisna Murti, which has been just published by CoBo, these things are contemporary art, Indonesia and martial arts.
Here is the link to the interview
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Hong-Kong based webmagazine and collector’s platform CoBo has just published my latest article called “Being a collector as a lifestyle choice: Interview with Georgina Adam”.
Writer and journalist Georgina Adam is the author of “Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century”, an important book which does exactly what is says on the tin: retracing the history and the main players of the art market as we see and experience it today.
We talk about what are the consequences of this market explosion for collectors, the ’80s as the decade in which everything changed and more.
Here is the link to the interview
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The 2016 Taipei Biennal is the most important contemporary art event in Taiwan, and this year it has been curated by French curator Corinne Diserens. In this interview for Cobo we tackle many topics, including the role of the museum and a subject that I’m currently researching on right now: bureaucracy.
I have just started a new series for the webmagazine CoBo about Indonesian contemporary painters. The first installment is Murni, recently celebrated in the show Merayakan Murni at Ketemu Project Space and Sudakara Art Space in Bali.
Here is the link to the article
Lately I haven’t written a whole lot of art critique in the real sense of the word, dedicating myself more to articles or interviews. Every so often though, I encounter artworks that I just can’t shut up about. This is the case with the latest pieces of Indonesian artist Eddy Susanto, who is one of my favorite contemporary artists ever; so I wrote this piece for CoBo, reading through the cross-references inside “Transhumanism Paradox (Dante’s Divine Comedy)” and “PANJI: The Linguistic Culture of Southeast Asia”, which will be realized for the upcoming Singapore Biennial. The first work was particularly interesting to explore as an Italian researching Indonesian art; it was the perspective of an Indonesian artist on what is a staple of Italian literature.
“Actually, this is a really good idea”, said my dentist throwing his blood-drenched gloves in the bin. He had just pulled out my wisdom tooth, making me more sore and more wise – pain is supposed to be the highway to wisdom after all, isn’t it? The dentist wholeheartedly approved of my habitual taking July and August away from my Rome life. That time wouldn’t be exactly “off”. I would in fact catch up on project that need breadth and space, dedicate to articles that I never have time to pitch, books that I never have the peace of mind to sit and read. Most importantly, I’d refine what I have learned in the previous months.
Hong Kong-based magazine CoBo has just published my interview with Norwegian art collector and adventurer Erling Kagge. There is a line of the interview that is applicable well beyond collecting, and definitely struck a chord with me: “To be an art collector you must be obsessed. It is beyond rationality and there is a bit of insanity in it. Many people have hobbies, they might collect stamps or cars. I personally don’t have hobbies, for me both expeditions, art collecting and publishing are different aspects of the same thing called “lifestyle”. I’m all in and I don’t set boundaries between my private life, my life as a collector, or as an explorer.”
I believe that this concept of “being all in” for the things you love, is what ultimately leads to a beautiful life. For me personally this state can be find in the technique; whether it is writing, the martial arts or creating stories. But it can also translate in simply deeply listening to a friend when he’s telling you about his take on Rudolf Steiner’s theories in front of a cup of coffee. It is that sense of connection with everything you have committed to do in depth. It creates a communion of ideas, people, nature, everything around us. It puts us in a network, as opposed to making us feeling disconnected.
So for me today it is not really about asking the point of doing a particular activity, but it is rather about recognizing what learning and practicing whatever type of activity or art in depth can make to your life. This goes especially for those privileged few of us which have time every now and then to incur in existential crisis. But I’m going off topic…
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My new piece “Five Indonesian artists that help us rethink nature” has just been published on Cobo. In recent years I came to feel very strongly about environmental issues and I’m a big believer that art can really help people connect with our planet on a deep level. Channelling the spirit of the times, contemporary Indonesian artists are tackling the theme of nature in a unique way.
ps: Cobo has new flashin’ fb page, check it out!
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Almost exactly one year ago in Paris, a dancer friend who had lived in Indonesia, told me of a great Indonesian artist who I should absolutely meet and interview. The artist was Ivan Sagita, a painter based in Yogyakarta whose work is charming and mysterious.
Ivan Sagita is one of the initiators of what has been called “Jogja surrealism”, a style that emerged in the 1980s in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta. His painting and sculptures combine a strong social element to the spiritual realm – what the artist calls “the unreal”.
I finally met with the artists a few weeks ago and sat with him to discussed this concept, his background and the idea of spirituality in art. The interview has just been published on the webmagazine/platform Cobo.
Here’s the link to the interview
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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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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
