CRYPTOBIOSIS: Seeds of the World is taking place at the Selasar Sunaryo Art Space in Bandung from 24 January to 15 February. It is featuring thirteen groups of artists under the theme of “cryptobiosis (hidden life activity)”, inspired by the cave paintings in Sulawesi, which are believed to be the world’s oldest.
Project for Participation in Overseas Media Arts Festival [INDONESIA]
CRYPTOBIOSIS: Seeds of the World Exhibition
Period： Saturday 24th January to Sunday 15th February, 2015
*Opening reception on Friday 23 January at 7:00p.m.
Venue： Selasar Sunaryo Art Space （Bukit Pakar Timur No. 100, Bandung- 40198, West Java, Indonesia）
http://www.selasarsunaryo.com/
Admission：Free
Co-organizer：SELASAR SUNARYO art space
Co-operation: Fukuoka Asian Art Museum
Planning Director：NAKAO Tomomichi (Curator, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum)
Project advisor：YOSHIOKA Hiroshi (Professor，Graduate School of Letters,
Kyoto University／Aesthetics and Art Theory）
MOURI Yoshitaka （Musical Creativity and the Environment, Tokyo University of the Arts／Sociology）
Administration： NHK international, Inc.
Theme and Plan
One of the greatest discoveries in art history to occur in 2014 was surely the world’s oldest cave paintings found on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Showing hand shapes and animal drawings, these ancient cave paintings encapsulate the impulses of the people who lived here amidst Sulawesi Island’s natural wilderness that they needed to express and record just like a time capsule.
Even if they are not ancient cave paintings, artistic works are all essentially time capsules encapsulating the emotions experienced by the artist at a certain time and in a certain place in the sense that something hidden within each work is given new life and begins to more through the empathy of viewers.
In biology, the act of animals and plants temporarily shutting down life activity in order to survive in the harsh natural environment is called “cryptobiosis (hidden life activity)”. Lotus flowers germinating from seeds that are several thousands of years old and water bears that did not die after being released into cosmic space for several days can be said to be astonishing examples of cryptobiosis. That is to say, cryptobiosis is simultaneously the stopping of life activity premised on the expectation that the life activity will start up again and a method for survival.
Here, by amplifying the biological phenomenon of cryptobiosis to include human social activities and media art, we wish to consider nature and archives as latent human capabilities or memories, old and new styles or technologies, and the wellspring of art. To this end, from amongst past award-winning works of the Japan Media Arts Festival we wish to focus on works that attempt to resurrect through some method something that has been buried somewhere in our world, their existence and value long forgotten, and try to gather together in Bandung, Indonesia.
Planning director / NAKAO Tomomichi (Curator, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum)
Presentation of a New Works by Exhibiting Artist
The wall paintings discovered in October 2014 inside cave on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, regarded as the oldest cave paintings in the world: two artists participating in this exhibition—Yoshihiro YAMAMOTO and Syaiful Aulia Garibaldi—actually visited the caves and are presenting new works based on their research there.
READING ROOM (Furniture sponsored by UNKL347)
The Reading Room in the middle of the exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to pursue about 130 volumes of manga in English and Japanese, the majority of which are award-winning works in the Manga Division of Japan Media Arts Festival for the period 2011-2013. Visitors also can watch an animation Golden Time and play a game TorqueL prototype 2013.03pE3.
RELATED EVENTS
■OPENING EVENT
Live Performance “Braum Tube Jazz Band” by the artist Ei Wada
Commences 8:00 p.m., Friday 23 January at Ruang B
Performance by Ei Wada and Bandu Darmawan
※Reservations not required
Ei Wada received an Excellence Prize in the Art Division of the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2010. He will be providing a performance of his “Braun Tube Jazz Band”, with sound effects from the Indonesian artist Bandu Darmawan. Visitors will also have an opportunity to create their own music following this performance.
*Bandu Darmawan: Born in 1989, Cilacap, educated at Intermedia art, Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology.
■LECTURE & TALK
“Cave Paintings: Artistic Expression from Prehistoric Times”
Date & Time: 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., Saturday 24 January
Venue: Bale Handap
Moderator: Tomomichi Nakao (Planning director of the CRYPTOBIOSIS: Seeds of the World exhibition)
Participants: Dr. Pindi Setiawan (Professor of faculty of Art & Design, Bandung Institute of Technology)
Yoshihiro Yamamoto (Artist, winner of Grand Prize, Art Division of the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2012)
Syaiful Aulia Garibaldi (Artist)
Last year, a team of researchers announced that a hand stencil on a cave wall in Sulawesi is probably the world’s oldest. Prehistoric cave paintings of hands and animals exist in various parts of the globe, underscoring a commonality in human artistic expression. But they also raise various questions. What was their purpose? How did the community relate to them? And what does the discovery in Sulawesi mean for Asian art?
*Indonesian Interpretation available (consecutive)
■CLOSING EVENT WORKSHOP
“Between Sense & Senseless: Drawing Workshop with Man and Machine”
Date & Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Sunday 15 February
Venue: Ruang Sayap
Target：Local graffiti writers, artists, and elementary school students.
Fixed number：10 people
This workshop by the artist Takahiro Yamaguchi (winner of the New Face Award in the Art Division of the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2011) will be open to artists, graffiti writers and elementary school students resident in Bandung. Please note that only a total of about ten places are available on a first-come basis.The workshop will be a collaboration between the “Senseless Drawing Bot” and local artists, revealing the differences in mechanical and human drawing. The participants will be able to add their own spray-paint drawings to the graphics created by the “Senseless Drawing Bot” in the course of the exhibition.
Program Screening
■ Screenings of award-winning works of the Japan Media Arts Festival
Venue: Bale Handap
※Reservations not required
Date: Sunday 1 February
13:00 -Animated short program 2014
14:10 -The Q of moving-image
Date: Saturday 7 February
13:00 -Beyond the Technology
14:00 -Portrait of Japanese Animation
Date: Sunday 8 February
13:00 -JAPAN POP ENERGY
Date: Sunday 15 February
13:00 -Beautiful drawing ―Drawing’s Endless Allure
