PhiloArt Space is celebrating its seventh anniversary in September 9, 2012. The years have been a meaningful period for us in our journey walking through the world of Indonesia’s arts, especially in the path of contemporary arts history. PhiloArt Space does not play in vast areas such as other galleries. We focus on only the contemporary arts specializing in urban themes and issues.
The spotlight on ‘urban culture’ is for contextual reason only. Urban issues or themes have given artists a lot of events, cases and issues that are challenging to be responded to; it is a general understanding that the changes in the society and the changes in the whole nations are coming from the changes in the urban space. Artists are challenged to take a stance about all the changes: either they have to go with the sweep of the flow or they gather their resolve and stand against it no matter how impossible it may seem.
Urban culture is a representation of many faces of expressions. Differences become the logical base for relation and movement extension. Every time we are offered a myriad of displays; presented in various motives, intentions, methods and other habits of people with different education and cultural background; displays which make urban space so elusive to define.
However, it is from this complexity of the urban faces that we all came to the acknowledgement that those expressions are phenomenologically driven by the desire to fulfill people’s ‘well being’, and therefore the intentions, dreams, identities, strategies, communicative relations, competencies, and all other things cannot be taken in half focus.
The very abundance of urban faces makes it seemingly without expression. Seemingly – as we are at any time may be presented with unexpected possibilities; events that happen without notice which force the emergence of something that we call self-identity or the culture of self representation at that moment – in the events of violence, either physically or symbolically. But we would soon be back at our initial realization that the urban complexities are something that cannot be avoided and that we do not need to bathe them with too much attention. As if they are not serious enough to fight for.symbolically. But we would soon be back at our initial realization that the urban complexities are something that cannot be avoided and that we do not need to bathe them with too much attention. As if they are not serious enough to fight for.
For seven years PhiloArt Space has been actively representing various urban themes: time and space, humanity, relationship, and many others. We have been very happy with the enthusiasm and the great appreciation that the society has paid to the artists – artists who are quite new in the arts life; those who we have represented in single or group exhibitions.
For our seventh anniversary we intentionally do not carry special theme. We would just call our theme ‘Anniversary Expressions’. Some of the artists have had their works exhibited in PhiloArt Space, but some are new names; all with their own unique styles. Our thanks to Cubung Wahono Putra, Doel AB, Tri Pandrong, Sardono W Kusumo, Edo Pop, Bambang Wibawarta, Nurmilisani, Samy Zimah, Farid Shikumbang.
Happy Exhibiting!
Tommy F Awuy
curator
Catalog:
Anniversary Expressions
Artists:
Sardono W Kusumo, Doel AB, Samy Zimah, Nur Milisani, Edo Pop, Cubung WP, Farid Shikumbang, Tri Pandrong, Bambang Wibawarta
9 – 24 september, 2013