MELATI SURYODARMO’S HABITUS AND AGENCY IN UNDISCLOSED TERRITORY FESTIVAL # 10, SPACE WITHIN SPACE

• Main Author: Sholihin, Riyadhus
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/51730
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The manifestation of curatorial agencies presents not only in fine arts exhibitions, but also in festivals, including performance art festivals. In Indonesia, the figures of performance arts festival curators have started to emerge since the 2000s. In general, their curatorial practices are shaped through habituation as performance artists. This research focuses on Melati Suryodarmo, an Indonesian performance art figure who has been working as an artist since 1994. In addition, Melati is also a curator whose agency is reflected in the activities of PALA (Performance Art Laboratory, since 2007) and the Undisclosed Territory (UT) festival in Sukoharjo Surakarta since 2007. Using the concepts of habituation, agency, capital, practice and arena, as explained by Pierre Bourdieu, this research seeks to analyze through a study of Melati's performance works and the activities that she organized. Instead of organizing festivals in cities that already have an established art scene, Melati chose Sukoharjo, a rural area in northern Surakarta to hold PALA and UT. She persistently organizes the two festivals with her own capital. Melati's habituation is constantly on the move between Surakarta, Bandung and Germany, this situation has influenced her agency and practice both as an artist as well as a curator. The idea of "pertemuan” (meeting, gathering, encountering) that Melati rehearses at UT is influenced by the idea of “arts of encounter” that she experienced in various performance art festivals in Germany. Meanwhile, the “artist serves artist” concept is influenced by the context of her living space in Surakarta, which is accustomed to "sambatan" and "sesrawungan" tradition. Melati's practice as a curator and a performance artist is influenced by her personal ties to her birthplace, her encounters with various agents, and her connection with many art events throughout her life. This habituation produces a distinctive taste, which eventually solidifies Melati's agency. In UT # 10 Space within Space (2010), the intersection between Melati’s artistic habituation and her curatorial agency appeared most prominently in long durational performance works.