Syaura Qotrunadha | Yogyakarta | Indonesia
ARTWORKS
“The Fattest Land at the Fair”
1-channel video
12:13 mins
2020
“Astronot, Ruang Keluarga, dan Isi Dompet Warga Antah Berantah”
1-channel video
11:50 mins
2020
“DIALITA (Mixtrack)”
Music Player on Carved Wood Package
10 x 7 x 3,5 cm
2020
“Merancang Kemasan untuk Lagu Dialita”
Art workshop for public
LiFES: Literature and Idea Festival 2019
Komunitas Salihara Jakarta
2019
After the 1965 communism massacre incident, one generation of intellectuals in Indonesia has been lost. But in detention and exile, the artists continue to work to fight for humanity. Dialita is a choir group consisting of female ex-political prisoners who have been kidnapped and arrested by New Order regime without trials. Many of them spent their youth and productive period in custody. Creating music is one of things that prisoners did silently at the time. These process of creating was never written properly since they couldn’t keep any forms of stationery and only taught orally from person to person in their free time.
Memorizing songs and singing are their way to keep their sanity. Many of the songs they created serve as encouragement to stay alive, longing for family and loved ones, and as markers for subtle events such as love in prison and birthday celebrations. After being released, Dialita members try to recollect these memories of the songs both on lyrics and notes structures from many other political prisoners that survived from the events. Every jail have their own collective songs and Dialita still presenting these songs until today.
In this workshop, participants interpreted songs that contained the testimony and experience of the ex-political prisoners in the form of packaging visual artworks and texts. They do drawings, making poets, letters, and actively have casual conversation with one of Dialita’s family. Participants can bring home the entire workshop results along with songs and scores in digital form.
“Sambunghambar”
Periodical Project
Collaboration with Testa Siregar, Azizi Al Majid,
Gerakan Seni Rupa Bogor, Klub Karya Bulu Tangkis
2016-2018
@sambunghambar is a project made by Testa Siregar and Syaura Qotrunadha. @sambunghambar started as the medium for them to play exquisite corpse and connected by instagram’s hashtag so everyone can freely join to play. After a while, instagram changed their layout on hashtag preview. This event triggered them to start to make their own @sambunghambar account and to develop further the concept of making the offline version of @sambunghambar.
By the time, this offline project is run by Syaura as an interactive parody figures with installation and video works with participatory activities which talks about forgotten histories and poor education system in Indonesia. The first offline project allows audiences to apply for their own Sambunghambar Repooblik's Identity Card (Cartao Tandha Pendatang) that made from recycled thesis papers with original version of loanwords from other countries that still used in Indonesia as daily language. These loanwords were always taught in school to be memorized and written properly in Indonesian version in every generation until the highest formal degree.
The main idea of @sambunghambar is still implemented in this project by connecting several ideas into one abstract form that could open any further interdiciplinary collaborations to process broader ideas.
Exhibition:
1. "On a Lighter Note"
9th November 2017 - 5th January 2018
Ark Galerie, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2. "Nomad's Land Mobile Service
with Azizi Al Majid"
17th - 29th August 2018
Travelling around Bandung
3. "Berdiam/Bertandang: Art for Refuge"
21st - 27th September 2018
National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
4. "Nomad's Land Mobile Service
with Klub Karya Bulu Tangkis"
20th - 23th September 2018
Travelling around Jakarta
5. "Nomad's Land Mobile Service
with Gerakan Seni Rupa Bogor"
26th - 27th September 2018
Travelling around Bogor
“History of the Other Him”
Photography, Plywoods, Fabrics.
Collaboration with Jean-Pascal Elbaz & Abe Poespo
2016
“History of the Other Him” is a collaborative artwork made by Abe Poespo (Film Costume Designer) and Jean-Pascal Elbaz (French manager based in Yogyakarta) along with Syaura Qotrunadha for “Inside/Outside Skin: Beyond Masculinity” group exhibition. They made 12 photograph installation series that represent male figure in western fashion industry through histories since early 1900-2016. The artwork itself presented in the form of interactive cubes installation that divided the full-body photos into three parts, head, body and legs. These parts of bodies could be rearranged and mixed with the other body parts from different eras to form a new figure. Audiences could freely touch and play with the artwork during the exhibition period.
Exhibition:
1. "HIM"
26th January - 2nd February 2017
Institut Français Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2. "Inside/Outside the Skin: Beyond Masculinity"
28th September - 15th November 2016
Ark Galerie, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
“The Omitted Narratives,
The Gathered Memories"
Photographs, Mural, Screenprinted Flag
Collaborative work with Venti Wijayanti & Agni Saraswati for Biennale Jogja XIII
2015
The 1965 Event is a history remembrance narrative for a time stamp in Indonesia as the biggest communism massacre event in Indonesia which have killed more than three million people from every backgrounds without equitable reasoning. This event have big impact on Indonesia’s establishment as a country because it happens 20 years after the independence day and demolish one of highly intellectual generation in Indonesia. Until these days, the history itself has not been fully accepted as a part of Indonesian history.
In “Omitted Narratives, The Gathered Memories” , Syaura Qotrunadha and Agni Saraswati, young generation artists, make works responding the 65’ issue particularly on the Dialita choir. Dialita is a choir group founded by 1965 women ex-political prisoners which been caught by new order military in the 1965 massacre event. Both artists live in distanced era from the event, they started the works by collecting survival memories of the ex-political prisoners who are already old right now. Few of the ex-political prisoners have a strong hope for this nation. This hope is continually built with the story telling of the silenced history in 1965. From losing parents, family members, and starting life from zero. Syaura and Agni try to respond to it by making works from the young generation’s perspective. They reinterpret the history of 65 with the rebirth on the young generation spirit.
Exhibition
1. "Biennale Jogja XIII Indonesia Meets Nigeria:
Hacking Conflict"
1st November - 10th December 2015
Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
“Lokananta Project”
Site-specific Project
Collaboration with Ayos Purwaji, Fakhri Zakaria, Dzulfikri Putra Malawi,
Bayu Pratama, and Yerikho Naektua
2014-2017
Lokananta Project is a collective site-spesific project initiated by young artists, journalists, and designer along with Studio Lokananta to process, review, and rebrand the available archives of Studio Lokananta Surakarta. Studio Lokananta is the first Indonesia's government record company and have been abandoned for several decades since the collapse of the new order government. The company itself save many important audio visual archives from 50s-70s era that represent history of Indonesians as a whole nation from time to time. At the other hand, the archiving habit until nowadays still is an unsolved problem in Indonesia and mostly exists in the underground movements. This project tried to publish a legal music digital library (www.lokanantamusik.com) and physical literature of Studio Lokananta.
In this project, Syaura took role as producer and writer. She observes and wrote about Lokananta’s artwork evolutions along with managing and running the project. The book itself being the first official literature about Lokananta that have been made by Indonesian since the company founded. Since then, many other Indonesian students started to give more attention by doing research for their bachelor or master degree and Lokananta themselves started to be more independent on running the company.
“JOGED”
600 Van Dyke prints stopmotion.
Collaborative work KOPPI and Isidorus Shalom
2014
“JOGED” is a stopmotion video made of 600 Van Dyke oldprints. In 2014, Colorado Photographic Arts Center held an open application for alternative photography proccess works exhibition that could be applied from all over the world. In this program Syaura participate in an old photography process team called KOPPI as Image Processor to make 600 frames of Van Dyke prints which accepted into the program and exhibited in “Alt+ Process” group exhibition.