Antena Projects

Yogyakarta Indonesia
Final Two Weeks (part four)

The second Sunday before I left, I was invited out to spend an overnight visit at Antena Projects founded and run by Entang Wiharso and Christine Cocca. I've been invited (along with Carolyn Castano) to participate in the Artists' Residency Program at Antena Projects next June and July 2007 (we'll be going 3 weeks early to take an intensive Bahasa Indonesian course).

From their Website http://www.antenaprojects.org/:

Antena Projects collaborates with other organizations to create exhibitions, publications, art actions, educational forums (workshops and presentations) and curator/artists' exchanges which promote and communicate Indonesian contemporary art trends and movements. Antena Projects' activities are intended to contribute to heterogeneous art practices and to provide opportunities for a diverse community of artists.

Initially conceived as a virtual organization, Antena Projects partnered with local organizations to plan and produce a wide range of art activities including the 7th Yogyakarta Biennale (with Taman Budaya Yogyakarta), arts management workshops (with Gelaran Budaya), an artists exchange between Yogyakarta and Liechtenstein (with the Indonesian Art Institute of Yogyakarta) and a publication documenting 2 multi-day, site-specific outdoor sculpture initiatives (with Warsawa) to name a few.

In July 2005 Antena Projects formally announced its artists' residency program (in partnership with the graduate program at the Indonesian Art Institute of Yogyakarta) and launched its newest initiative, KAMAR SENI (Art Room), a small, multi-functional space that represents a permanent home and a more space-oriented approach to programming. KAMAR SENI completes the development of Antena Projects' 3000 square meter art compound which is located in a village on the outskirts of Yogyakarta-Central Java.

The facility, which is 30 minutes from the city center, is surrounded by rice paddy fields and offers views of Mt. Merapi and Prambanan Temple. Yogyakarta, home to the Indonesian Art Institute of Yogyakarta and many of the country's leading artists, curators, critics and art venues, is the cultural capital of Java and has a long history of supporting traditional and contemporary arts.

Antena Projects Artists' Residency Program is designed to bring foreign and Indonesian artists together in an intimate, home-like environment where artists have the freedom to explore and experiment with new ideas and mediums while building relationships with members of the broader Yogyakarta arts community. A maximum of five artists are in residence at any one time. During the course of their stay artists are asked to open their studios to the public and a final exhibition of artists' work will be held at KAMAR SENI. Facilities include painting, printmaking, sculpture, and ceramic studios and access to video editing facilities on a scheduled basis.

All artists participating in Antena Projects Artists' Residency Program are affiliated, through our partnership arrangement, with the graduate program at the Indonesian Art Institute of Yogyakarta (Program Pasca Sarjana, Institut Seni Indonesia) headed by Dr. Dwi Marianto. This partnership gives artists in residence the opportunity to present to students and faculty, participate in classes and workshops and have access to campus facilities.