The magazine of the Asia-Europe Foundation Culture360 has just published my interview with Dutch researcher and lecturer in Indonesian Studies at The University of Melbourne Edwin Jurriëns. Edwin has just published a book with Routledge called “Visual Media in Indonesia”, where he analyses how in Indonesia, in the age of digital communication and global capitalism, people’s mental, social and natural environments are interconnected.
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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My second piece for the Hong Kong based webmagazine CoBo is an interview with Indonesian artist Aditya Novali, one of the most curious and intelligent people I had the pleasure to talk with. Aditya is the paradigm of the versatile artist and has explored many ways of making work. He was also recently nominated for Best Emerging Artist Using Installation at the Prudential Eye Awards in Singapore.
Here’s the link to the interview
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The Italian web magazine Art a Part of Cult(ure) just published the interview I had in Melbourne with Edwin Jurriëns, lecturer in Indonesian Studies at Melbourne University. The interview is part of my reportage about contemporary art in Indonesia.
Here you are the link to the interview
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“Sic transit Gloria mundi” is what is written in burn marks on the white wall of Macro’s Enel Room.
That’s an epigraph that could sound powerful, but dramatic and resigned as well. It is not simple for an artist to deal with decadence. I mean, working on a concept so wide like “The word is falling apart”. He has to be careful, not to be demagogic or didactic.
He has to distance himself to the common sense, like your typical neighbour’s morning remarks “The word is changing. When I was young everything was totally different. Better than now, for sure. We have no autumn and spring anymore”.
Mircea Cantor luckly, succeed to be ecumenical not being banal.
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The American magazine NY Arts published my review of Mircea Cantor exhibition at MACRO, Rome with the title “Mircea Cantor: The World is Changing”
Here you are the link to the review
Here you are the editorial preview on NY Arts Tumbrl
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Ecco cosa vedete, nascosti dietro al vetro a specchio.
In una stanza metafisica, bianca come uno spazio espositivo, io e l’artista Valentina De’ Mathà ci sediamo ad un tavolo candido, sul quale è adagiato un niveo foglio.
Io scrivo una domanda, e in silenzio passo il foglio a Valentina. Lei scrive la risposta, piega la parte superiore della carta in modo che non sia leggibile e mi ripassa il foglio.
Alla ventesima domanda Valentina si alza ed esce. Anche io faccio lo stesso, ma prima apro il foglio e ve lo attacco, dal verso leggibile, al vetro specchio.
C’è scritto questo:
Cosa c’è sotto?
Il caso che non esiste.
Perché vivi in Svizzera?
All’inizio perché ho improvvisamente sentito la necessità di staccarmi dall’Italia e soprattutto da Roma, verso la quale avevo un attaccamento morboso. Quindi, al culmine di questa morbosità, ho deciso di tagliare il cordone ombelicale e fuggire via senza guardarmi indietro, ma soprattutto perché mi sono resa conto, con estrema lucidità e amarezza, che l’ Italia non sarebbe stata in grado di darmi le opportunità professionali, il sostegno e i confronti di cui avevo bisogno, e che avrei trovato solo viaggiando.
Non era mio obiettivo trasferirmi in Svizzera, anzi, ma dieci giorni prima di partire verso Berlino ho conosciuto Roger Weiss, fotografo svizzero, colui che poi è diventato mio marito.
Ho visto artisti che sulla carta d’identità hanno scritto “artigiano”, tu invece?
Ho solo il passaporto.
L’hai mai persa la carta d’identità?
Mai.
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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
