Cemeti Art House

Cemeti Art House
Wrestling and rebellion directed towards innovation in the history of art quickly becomes the staid and withered establishment. Unique and alternative soon turn into the uniform and accepted order.

Since 1988, Cemeti Art House has been actively promoting and stimulating practices in the contemporary Indonesian art scene and art practices on a wider international platform. More than ten projects, such as site specific, community based exhibitions, presentations, and performances involving local and foreign artists, writers, and art activists, have been realized each year.

Artist’s talks, project presentations and group exhibitions are presented locally, as well as internationally, as well as our monthly indoor curatorial exhibitions at Cemeti Art House gallery. They include ‘ART OF BAMBOO’ in 2002 (Indonesia and Danish artists), ‘CHOOSE YOUR OWN PUBLIC’ in 2005 (Indonesian artists), LANDING SOON RESIDENCY PROGRAMMES from 2006 through 2009 (local and Dutch artists), ‘TRADITIONAL PERFORMING ART ADVOCATION PROGRAMME’ in 2007 with Ford Foundation support in five villages, ‘THE PAST FORGOTTEN TIME’ (Indonesian artist), a traveling project at The Hague, Amsterdam, Jakarta, Semarang, and Shanghai in 2007.

Contemporary art in Indonesia can be seen as a form of concern and reflection of artists' views related to issues on developing society. Through their work, artists honestly respond and often criticize a very specific social phenomena and bringing an aesthetic perspective to the discussion, whilst others may express their individual and personal approaches to their realities. Being bond and stuck to particular media disciplines becomes a less crucial issue.

In 2010, Cemeti Art House launched a new platform in which activities will revolve around and focus on reinventing ‘Art and Society’, emphasizing more alternative art practices that honor the ‘process’, rather than the ‘promotion’.

The Cemeti Art House exhibition space which was designed by architect Eko Agus Prawoto in 1999, highlighting the local - global, traditional - modern, art - non art, individual - collective, natural - manufactured, crafted - industrial, conventional - innovative as the paradoxes reflected in its architectural construction, is transforming into an open studio suited for workshops, displays , discussions, and fulfilling but critical learning.

Cemeti Art House and Studio will gradually undertake an ideal and strategic role mediating dialogue by focusing more on the research process of each party, where curators, writers, art critics, art activists, and artists meet each other in our residency programmes.