An evening with a stellar cast from Indonesia. Venzha Christ and Duto Hardono will talk about their work and unveil their most recent projects for the Biennale Jogja XII, which opens in Yogyakarta on the 16th of November, 2013. Both artists are currently visiting Cairo in the framework of a residency exchange program, organised by the Biennale Jogja XII in collaboration with various partner institutions, one of them Beirut.

Venzha Christ (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) is a prolific artist, initiator, UFO maniac and leading artist in media and art and science research. He focuses on media art since 1999 and he eventually founded the HONF lab (now HONF Foundation) dedicated to fuse education, art and technology with local communities without cultural limitation. Venzha produced and organized projects across a wide range of disciplines and formats, from public art installations, media performances, technology and science research to media art and video festivals, workshops, discussions, DIY gatherings, and various electronic and media culture movements. With HONF he launched the Education Focus Program (EFP) with the goal to build connections and interactions between local/creative communities (whose interest and focus is on new media), scientists, and creators/artists. A second innovative aim is to create connections between universities with expertise in technology and media artists/theorists who are interested in media art and technology. As such the program aims to reinforce the interest in and analysis of technology in artistic production and theory and to eventually build new bridges between both fields. Venzha is also a conceptor and director for YIVF (Yogyakarta International Videowork Festival) and CELLSBUTTON (Yogyakarta International Media Art Festival), produced and organized by HONF every year. (excerpts taken from a text by Deanna Herst - NL)

Duto Hardono is based in Bandung, Indonesia, and graduated from the Fine Art & Design Faculty of Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). He creates installations, drawings and collages that are full of humor and wit, often using found or readymade objects such as old cassette tapes, records, and instruments. There are also some references from art history such as John Cage’s concept of 4’33 in his sound installation using a home-made delay mechanical system and looping cassette tapes. During his Tokyo artist residency in 2011, he created a sound installation using various sounds that he recorded in Tokyo. He also performed at the opening of his residency exhibition using a vintage synthesizer, which he found in Tokyo. In the opening of Hara Museum exhibition he performed with the various noises and sounds from the residency time and made it into several tape loops. His current work, shown at the Shanghai Biennale 2012 for a few weeks before, finally got banned by the Chinese Government for political reasons. He is also active in performing live and releasing his experimental music on his own private press label, Hasana Private Press, beside several labels from US, Australia & Russia.

In keeping with its questions and interests around mobility and migration, the Biennale Jogja XII is launching a residency program for artists from July to October 2013. As the first residency program that precedes the exhibition, it serves as a direct opportunity of exchange between artists from Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Yemen.

The residency exchange prgram extends the life of the biennale and seeks to create a platform from which to explore these locales through artistic practice, by giving participating artists the possibility to develop (new) work processes through direct research sojourns in other countries and communities. This aims to expand on the mission of the project and the impetus of the exhibition, which makes a subtle shift of emphasis on the process leading up to the exhibition in November, invested in artists and their experience, perhaps more than relying on the travel of ready-made artworks from gallery storages to staging exhibitions.

As part of the Biennale Equator, Biennale Jogja XII provides a new vantage point from which to read the world through artists and their works; each edition of the Biennale Equator focuses on a specific equatorial region. Eight artists are nominated of the residency program: five artists from Indonesia will be starting their residencies in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; three artists from Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt will each spend some weeks in Yogyakarta.

This residency exchange programme has been realized with a generous support from several institutional partners as a local host, including Sharjah Art Foundation and Maraya Art Centre (Sharjah, UEA), Athr Gallery (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia), Beirut (Cairo, Egypt), Langgeng Art Foundation and SaRang Art Space (Yogyakarta, Indonesia).