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Artjog festival returns
The festival runs from June 30 to Aug. 27 with the theme “Motif: Lamaran” (Motif: Proposal).
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fter a three-year hiatus because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Artjog 2023 has returned for two months at the Jogja National Museum in Yogyakarta.
Thousands of visitors have welcomed the biggest art festival in Indonesia.
Seventy-one local and international artists, including 22 child artists, are being featured at Artjog 2023, curated this year by Nadiah Bamadhaj and Hendro Wiyanto. The festival runs from June 30 to Aug. 27 with the theme “Motif: Lamaran” (Motif: Proposal).
With this broad theme, focusing on the motifs found within each artists’ existing body of work, this year’s event is expansive and reflective, featuring many works that have developed over a number of years.
Mella Jaarsma, whose work is featured at the event, is a Dutch artist who has long been a fixture in the Yogyakarta art scene. She has built three rooms in the style of a limasan (traditional Javanese house) in front of the entrance of the museum. Here, visitors are presented with Mella’s pieces for the exhibition, most of which are costumes. Jaarsma titled this installation Outskirts.
Meanwhile, on the first floor of the Jogja National Museum’s exhibition building are the works of artist Butet Kartaredjasa. This exhibition features a documentary about his illustrious career as a theater actor and a selection of drawings produced by Butet as wirid prayers, where over the course of a number of years, every day Butet wrote out his full name, Bambang Ekoloyo Butet Kartaredjasa, 100 times. His hand-written name forms extraordinary paintings, like a litany prayer spoken over and over.
“The point is, whether you believe it or not, there have been many miracles after I did this wirid," he said. The expression of this prayer is in the form of sketches in the exhibition.
For the crowds that have returned to Artjog, the atmosphere is festive. As in years past, the young generation dominates this festival of art. The multidimensional pieces on display have their own draw as a selfie event.
