Melati Suryodarmo

Melati Suryodarmo (born 12 July 1969) is an Indonesian durational performance artist. Her physically demanding performances make use of repetitive motions and often last for many hours, sometimes reaching "a level of factual absurdity". Suryodarmo has performed and exhibited throughout Europe and Asia as well as in North America. Born in Surakarta, she attended Padjadjaran University, graduating with a degree in international relations before moving to Germany. She lived there for 20 years, studying performance art at the Braunschweig University of Art with Butoh choreographer Anzu Furukawa and performance artist Marina Abramović.

Suryodarmo later returned to Indonesia and founded Undisclosed Territory, an annual festival for performance art. She was the first woman to serve as artistic director for the Jakarta Biennale. Suryodarmo has been called "one of the most famous performance artists to come out of Indonesia."

Early life and education Melati Suryodarmo was born on 12 July 1969 in Surakarta, Indonesia. was a meditative performer and practitioner of Amerta. Suryodarmo attended Padjadjaran University in Bandung. She participated in student demonstrations against the Suharto regime in late 1980s and was part of the underground student association.

Suryodarmo left Indonesia in 1994, moving to Braunschweig, Germany. She found work retouching photographs and planned to continue her studies in international relations. Suryodarmo received a fine arts degree in 2001 and an MFA in performance art in 2002. She later worked as an assistant for Abramović. Suryodarmo performed as a "living installation" alongside her former professor during the 2003 Venice Biennale.

Art career After living in Germany for 20 years, Suryodarmo moved back to Indonesia in 2013. She had a solo exhibition at Museum Macan in 2020.

Works

Suryodarmo typically produces one or two new performances every year. Many of Suryodarmo's pieces are physically demanding, durational forms of performance art. Aside from performance art, she also works in installation, video, and photography. In a review for ArtAsiaPacific, Eva McGovern-Basa writes that Suryodarmo's long durational pieces often involve repetitive actions that "deal with physical restraint, resistance and transformation as well as the contemplation of carefully selected objects and environments that trigger poetic movement." The anticipation of each inevitable fall creates a tension for the audience, generating both sympathy and fascination at her perseverance despite the apparent futility of her actions.

Why Let the Chicken Run? Why Let the Chicken Run? is a 15-minute performance where Suryodarmo chases a chicken. The work, first performed in 2001, is a response to Ana Mendieta's 1972 work, Death of a Chicken. The work symbolises people's "relentless pursuits in life."

Lullaby for the Ancestors In Suryodarmo's 2001 piece Lullaby for the Ancestors she repeatedly walks in a circle around a horse while cracking a whip then dunks her head in a bucket of water.

Exhibitions and residencies 2006: Grace Exhibition Space, New York 2006: Loneliness in the Boundaries, a solo exhibition at Cemeti Art House 2007: "Artist in Studio 2007" at Lilith Performance Studio, Sweden 2009: "Workshop at the Academy of Fine Arts" at Umeå University, Sweden 2010: "IASPIS Residency" in Umeå and Saxnäs, Sweden 2011: residency at Manila Contemporary, Philippines 2012: residency at the Waremill Center, New York, USA 2015: The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8), Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, Australia 2016: Singapore Biennale 2016: An Atlas of Mirror, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore 2017: SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, National Art Centre Tokyo, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan 2018: TIMORIBUS, ShanghART Gallery, Singapore 2019: Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia 2020: Why Let The Chicken Run?, Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia 2023: Ikon gallery in Birmingham PASSIONATE PILGRIM 2024: I am your Body: Chapter 2 - Flesh, Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

Personal life Suryodarmo married her first husband in Indonesia. In 1994, they moved to Braunschweig, Germany. She has a daughter named Selina and has lived in Groß Gleidingen, Germany. She is Buddhist.