Academic Fantasy Indonesia
2020-ongoing
Website archival of an online residency, in collaboration with @indoartno and @antikolektifkolektifklub
Artist Statement
Academic Fantasy Indonesia is an online residency, in partnership with Indonesian art meme accounts @indoartno and @antikolektifkolektifklub. 8 non-Indonesian writers are invited to research the significance of memes – concerning the art scene, pop culture, linguistics, and history, and the reason why it’s funny. The results are presented in the form of an academic essay or research proposal.
Being physically immobile, we looked deeper into the meaning of an artist residency — an exchange of lived experiences by immersing the self within a locality. We developed a residency format where, instead of physically living someplace, participants are to explore memes within the online confines of @indoartno and @antikolektifkolektifklub. The exchange is furthered with conversations with the meme account admins. The format converts the conventional residency space into the digital realm, while simultaneously retaining the process of artist residencies.
The title refers to a singing competition franchise in Southeast Asia, “Akademi Fantasi Indosiar”, a highly vernacular and nostalgic memory to many Indonesians and other Southeast Asian individuals. With its tacky, early 2000s visual, the TV program has become the source of many memes.
Upcoming Event
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Dika+Lija
Dika+Lija (Anathapindika Dai and Liza Markus) are art workers. After naive school dreams and the sobering truth of contemporary art, they found themselves sharing similar pains within their full-time jobs: Lija, currently a gallery girl who hates the art market, and Dika, once a museum staff who hated the academia. Being fugitives of their own passion-based career, they now work together to explore untamed ideas and weird paradoxes in the art world.
Dika+Lija’s key projects include Academic Fantasy Indonesia (Indonesia, 2020), an online contemporary art meme residency. They are fellows of BAK Fellowship for Situated Practice (Netherlands, 2021/22), and are currently based in Singapore and Jakarta.
Key Projects | ||
Singapore/Yogyakarta/Jakarta | 2021/22 | |
Jakarta/Singapore | 2020 | |
Contributions + Publications | ||
Fatamorgana Zine by 60x40cm | Yogyakarta/Bandung | 2021 |
20/20 Zine by Binatang Press, Further Reading, Irfan Hendrian Studio, and Kamboja Press | Jakarta | 2020 |
Group Exhibition | ||
Jakarta | 2021/22 | |
Residency | ||
BAK Fellowship for Situated Practice, BAK Basis & Gudskul | Utrecht/Istanbul/Jakarta | 2021/22 |
Talks + Public Events | ||
Meme Masak, Kapital Space | Bandung | 2021 |
Digital Realness Podcast, Site Gallery | Sheffield | 2021 |
Anathapindika
(b. 1997, Jakarta, @anathapindikadai) graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts with BA(Hons) Arts Management. Experienced in digital integrated marketing and advertising with a demonstrated history of working in the fine art industry, she is an exhibition manager focused on Singaporean and Indonesian contemporary art. She has overseen exhibitions and projects for Chan + Hori Contemporary, Singapore Art Week 2018, Hotel G Singapore, Raffles Hotel Maldives, along with experiences of working with Larasati Auctioneers and Art Apart Fair.
In the past 3 years, she led the digital portfolio of Singapore Tyler Print Institute (2018-2021) and S.E.A. Focus (2020-2021), handling overall marketing strategy, including press, digital, social media, paid ads, and advertising; and was part of National Gallery Singapore’s Partnership Development team (2021) developing an engaging membership journey for over 80,000 members.
With STPI Gallery, she has worked with artists, curators, and gallerists in the region and on world-class art fairs across the world, including solo exhibitions of Genevieve Chua, Melati Suryodarmo, Takashi Murakami, Pinaree Sanpitak, Aaron Curry, Jason Martin, and Manuel Ocampo. Key art fair participations include Art Basel (Hong Kong, Miami, and Basel), Frieze (London), and The Armory Show (New York). With S.E.A. Focus, she liaised closely with appointed PR agencies to develop a sound media plan, led the digital communications plan, and moderated talks with Korakrit Arunanondchai, Museum MACAN Jakarta, and MCAD Manila.
Liza Markus
(b. 1995, Jakarta, @lija_markus) is an Indonesian art practitioner who was trained as a sculptor in Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. She is interested in art, tradition, religion, but has since taken a more cynical view on all three. Her works obsess over themes of religious masochism, guilt, as well as traces of postcolonial hybrid cultures in Southeast Asian Christian and Catholic rituals. More recently, she is looking at readymade artworks with minimal interventions.
Lija has also been exploring a more managerial role in the exhibition-making process. Since relocating to Indonesia from Singapore, she has worked as a program manager in an art advisory and gallery led by Deborah Iskandar, during which she also planned the gallery’s 3 years program. She currently works for Gajah Gallery Indonesia as a Gallery Manager.
Key projects include assisting in translating and organizing I GAK Murniasih and Semsar Siahaan’s archives, managing a group exhibition of Southeast Asian performance art archive featuring FX Harsono and Arahmaiani, leading and writing for “Buah Tangan” a commercial group show of Indonesian Diaspora artists, and working on the latest KSR Jendela Art Basel Online Viewing Room presentation with Gajah Gallery. While she professionally works in the commercial scene, her heart still longs to take part in independent non-commercial projects.