A Double Bill Lecture by: Linda Agnesia Mayasari (Yogyakarta) Mark Teh (Kuala Lumpur)
Dance archivist and curator Linda Agnesia Mayasari and performance-maker Mark Teh present their artistic journeys that are intimately intertwined with personal identities at home and abroad. Teh ’s interest in interpreting and imagining a nation in the making of Malaysia leads him to create performances that dwell in historical documents and the documentary format with what he calls ”frictioning official texts with personal experiences/memories, parallel historical texts, and further research by performers ”. Emphasising collaboration, Teh ’s strategies of staging histories also mean working with other artists and researchers from different fields. In recent works, such as his The Complete Future of Malaysia series, Teh advocates generative, open-ended research processes ”taking form in multiple chapters of installations, exhibition, participatory projects, performances, lectures, etc ”.
On the other hand, Linda Mayasari unearths the archives of two historical Yogyakarta-based choreographers Bagong Kussudiardja and Wisnu Wardhana in an exhibition entitled ”Peeping into the Dance Archive: Drunk with Anything American vis-à-vis National Identity ”. The exhibition took place in the first edition of Jejak-Tabi Exchange in Yogyakarta Cemeti – Institute for Art and Society in collaboration with performance scholar Muhammad AB. Linda will speak of the important findings of their research of choreographers Kussudiardja and Wardhana specifically of their artistic achievements between 1950s and 1960s. This was a key period for Indonesian dance development that was also influenced by burgeoning Indonesian modernity and national identity of that time. Both Kussudiardja and Wardhana were the first Indonesian dance artists to travel to the US funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, including a studio stint with Martha Graham. Researchers Muhammad AB and Linda Mayasari connect personal histories of the choreographers with the larger political landscape of Indonesia, particularly early nation-building attempts through international cultural missions, designed by Indonesia ’s first president Sukarno (1945-1967).
Artist Profile
Linda Mayasari is Director at Cemeti - Institute for Art and Society, where she has worked since 2010, and also associate curatorial assistant for the Indonesia Dance Festival. She is currently completing her Masters in Religious & Cultural Studies at Sanata Dharma University, with research into intersections of art, politics and post colonialism within Indonesian cultural and historical contexts. She was previously programme manager at performing art space Bagong Kussudiardja Foundation (2008 - 2010), in Yogyakarta, and was a member of Gandrik Theatre (2009 - 2015). She was the Yogyakarta producer of the inaugural edition JEJAK-旅 TABI in July 2018.
Mark Teh is a researcher and performance maker based in Kuala Lumpur. His diverse, collaborative projects are particularly engaged with the issues of history, memory and the urban context, often taking on documentary and speculative forms. His practice is situated primarily in performance but also operates via exhibitions, participatory projects, writing, curating and education. Mark graduated with an MA in Art and Politics from Goldsmiths, University of London, and is a member of Five Arts Centre, a collective of interdisciplinary artists, producers and activists in Malaysia.
Performance Schedule
21(Fri) September 2018, 20:00
Venue
STUDIO PETALAWATI, Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan