British Council UK/Indonesia

Jane Showell

In March 2016 the British Council invited key UK producers and artists, who work in the arts and new technology, to Indonesia. It’s a country which is not very well-known to people in the UK, but one that South-East Asia looks towards for new and exciting work in the arts⁴⁶ . As the world’s largest archipelago, with 17,000 islands and 4th most populated country of more than 250 million people, Indonesia is a country rich in talent and creativity.

The purpose of the visit was to introduce UK and Indonesian artists and producers to each other and to explore the possibilities of working together for the UK/ID Season 2016 - 2018. We believe that there is a huge potential in developing a good relationship where both country’s arts scenes have a vast amount to gain.

During the visit, we gathered that there are two key themes that UK artists and producers found intriguing in the Indonesian Art Scene: the innate make-do culture, and collective community based cultural practice in the arts.

To introduce this interesting aspect of Indonesian make-do and collective culture to the UK, and introduce UK maker culture to Indonesian artists, three of the UK organisations: V&A London, Maklab Glasgow and Invisible Flock Leeds, are inviting two Indonesian artists from Lifepatch and Makedonia to the UK for a residency.

Lifepatch and Makedonia are both Indonesian art, science and technology organisations based in Jakarta and Yogyakarta, and are perfect examples of this Indonesian cultural practice. Both organisations were founded without any financial support from the government and exist simply to provide artists and producers a support and sharing platform. Each organisation has several artists and organisation under it’s umbrella. The artists invited are Andreas Siagian and Miebi Sikoki.

The visits hope to create a long term conversation and collaborative work between the UK and Indonesia art and digital scene.

More information of the British Council UK/Indonesia 2016 - 2018 can be found on : www.britishcouncil.id instagram and twitter account @idbritisharts

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