Hong-Kong based magazine Cobo has just published my report on this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale curated by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena. The overarching theme for the show is “Reporting from the Front” and the Asian pavilions are very much in the spotlight.
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For Escape – the Times of Malta’s Sunday magazine – I cover sensitive issues that are or have been in the art-related news. The news are for me a starting point for reflections, and this time around I couldn’t help to associate the polemics around contemporary Southafrican artist Kentridge’s murales on the walls of the Tiber, with self-righteous grassroots movement in the capital.
Of course what everything comes down to is a philosophical stance, spelled out by Kentridge himself: “Everyone’s triumphs and glories are someone else’s laments and shamefulness”
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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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Culture360, the webmagazine of the Asia-Europe Foundation has just published my interview to Ilaria Benini, editor of the Asia series of Turin’s publishing house ADD Editore. In the interview we discuss how ADD Editore is bridging Italy and Asia via literature.
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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During my last visit to Singapore I had the chance to visit the studio of Shubigi Rao, an incredible artist who reminded me of a modern-day Hypatia. With interests ranging from archaeology, to philosophy, to neuroscience (the list goes on and on) her work breaks barriers and definitions, and is injected by a good amount of irony.
For more than ten years she had operated under the name of S.Raoul, her scientist, theorist and archaeologist alter-ego, a lover for everything obscure and academic.
In my interview with Shubigi we talked about her background and her move to the Lion City. She introduced me to her body of work and her method of research. I’m in the process of elaborating the interview for my Singapore book – in the meantime enjoy these pictures taken at her studio.
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I have been following Azerbaijan’s exploits in the contemporary art world for quite a while now, and it has been interesting to look at the backstory behind their success. The opportunity for doing so was given to me by this great and dramatic show by Azerbaijan artist Faig Ahmed at MACRO, Rome.
The show was food for thought itself – confronted with this melting traditional carpets it was impossible to leave Zygmunt Bauman and Aldous Huxley out of the equation. I have written the story for Escape, the Sunday edition of the Times of Malta.
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Contemporary Indonesian art and literature have found a new home in the Italian city of Naples. I talk about it in this article called “Making Naples a home for Indonesian art and literature” for ASEF culture360. I have been a regular reader of this webmagazine – part of the Asia-Europe foundation – so I’m excited to have become a contributor.
For the piece I have interviewed Professor Antonia Soriente from Università degli Studi di Napoli and gallerist Vincenzo Montella who have contributed to promote the dialogue between Naples and Indonesia.
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We are back with a new report from the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, where we followed a workshop for children inspired by the exhibition “Il Giardino di Matisse”, currently on in the Museum. This show displays the original art from the namesake book by writer Samantha Friedman and Italian illustrator Cristina Amodeo, who reinterpreted the work by Henri Matisse.
The book was created for the exhibition “Henri Matisse: The Cut Outs” at MoMA. This was part of a new project by the NY museum, consisting in publishing a book for every large show linked to its collection, and a collaboration with several houses national and international publishing houses. For Italy it’s Fatatrac.
The osmotic process ended up in this workshop at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, where children were trying their hand at the collage, helped by their parents. The workshop was in fact aimed at family – so that art can become a way to spend quality time together. Enjoy the video! (in Italian)
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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
Published! Fondazione Prada on Global Comment
Last month I visited the art space Fondazione Prada in Milan with my curator friend Roberto D’Onorio. It was an interesting experience, both for the exhibition itself, by Goshka Macuga, and for the heavily regulated art space.
In this piece for Global Comment Roberto, Alexis de Tocqueville and Miuccia Prada herself all helped me think what Fondazione Prada stands for in the contemporary art landscape – and it is not what it looks like.
Here is the link to the piece
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