INDONESIA CONTEMPORARY ART PRIZE

On 24 March 2012, ArtSociates announced the winners of its second annual Bandung Contemporary Art Awards. The grand prize was presented to artist Yusuf Ismail for his provocative video installation, Eat Like Andy. Three residency prizes were also awarded.

In Ismail’s Eat Like Andy, for which the artist was awarded the RP100 million (USD10,900) prize, a 1981 video of Andy Warhol eating a hamburger on one television screen is juxtaposed with a duplicate of Ismail mimicking Warhol’s every movement on another. The work comments on the shadow cast by the contemporary master on today’s art landscape, particularly for Asian artists as they discover and incorporate postmodernism on their own terms.

Three other winners were selected to undertake three-month artist residencies in either France or Germany. Second place went to Yogyakarta graphic designer Eddy Susanto’s ‘Java of Dürer’, which recreates Albrecht Dürer’s 1498 woodcut ‘The Men’s Bathhouse’ using old Javanese script for the composition’s lines. Bagus Pandega’s interactive installation ‘Autism Spectrum’ combines LED lighting, a sound system with microphone, electronic sensors and a mirror ball to create an audiovisual experience based on the viewer’s speech. The piece allows the audience to isolate and entertain themselves, reflecting on the antisocial trappings of an increasingly technological world. Finally, Octura Chan won for her work, ‘Laura in Paradise’, a sculptural piece of a wooden doll with a red, beating heart.

The 24 finalists’ works were exhibited together until 8 April 2012, and will be auctioned off by Sotheby’s auctioneer Deborah Iskandar at Ciputra Marketing Gallery on 18 April in South Jakarta. Proceeds from the sale are set aside to fund next year’s award.

The Bandung Contemporary Art Award (BaCAA) was established in 2010 by the Indonesian art association ArtSociates and its founder, mathematician and art enthusiast Andonowati. It was created to encourage the production of new Indonesian contemporary art and notes itself as distinct from other art awards due to the diversity of its jury panel. Instead of being limited to critics or curators, this year’s jury included artists Agus Suwage and Mella Jaarsma, curators Hendro Wiyanto and Rifky Effendy, collectors Syakieb Sungkar and Wiyu Wahono, and art journalist Carla Bianpoen.

BaCAA is also unique in awarding residency funding to three runners-up. To be eligible for the prize, artists must be under forty years of age and have held at least three exhibitions in established venues in the past three years. While the competition is currently limited to artists from Indonesia, ArtSocietas plans to eventually expand the contest to include international entrants, allowing local contemporary artists to compete in an international context.

PR/KN/HH

http://artradarjournal.com/2012/04/09/video-artist-eats-like-andy-warhol-wins-2nd-bandung-contemporary-art-awards/