Elisabeth Ida Mulyani

1979, Indonesia

lives and works in Ghent (B)

Guest Artist

 

(NL) “Voorwerpen en 'gevonden composities' (zoals Guillaume Bijl ze noemt) worden niet opge-voerd om ermee te spotten, maar als stille getuigen van wanhopige pogingen een spiritueel lege wereld aan te kleden of te camoufleren. Het decoratieve, onwezenlijke aspect van deze pogingen maakt het mogelijk dat de foto's ook een commentaar of reflectie vormen, zowel op de fotografie zelf als op een artistieke en politiek bewuste levenshouding in het algemeen." (Uit Hans Theys, "Thuiskomst, genade en verzet. Over de foto's van Elisabeth Ida", in "Over Vorm", Tornado Editi-ons, 2010).

 

(GB) Entering a private room, we encounter a display of personality. How are things arranged, are there pictures, who are the people in the pictures displayed in the home, is the couch from fabrics or leather, which colors are the walls, are there plants or flowers, souvenirs from a far-away vacation: those are only a number of questions we can ask, from which the answers would generate a kind of hypothesis concerning the owner of the room. Anthropologist Daniel Miller stated that capitalism has made us create the objects that in turn create our understanding of who we can be. So, not only men make the objects, but the objects make the men. When we are used to some rooms, we can lose our critical eyes towards the rooms and the stuff in those spaces. Miller called this ‘the humility of things’, the fact that we do not ‘see’ the stuff anymore. He explained this as : "The less we are aware of them, the more powerfully they can determine our expectations by setting the scene and ensuring normative behavior, without being open to challenge.

 

 

 

STUDIES AND RESIDENCE:

2010  - graduated with high distinction as a Master of Visual Arts in Photography from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (the School of Arts of Ghent University) (B)

2014 - finishing postgraduate program

2014 - specializes in exhibition and conservation management of contemporary art.

AWARDS:

2015 - “Inside Embassies” book published by Art Paper Editions in 2015 selected as one of the best books by 2016 Kaleid Editions in Oslo

2012 - Elisabeth Ida is awarded by Antwerp Fotomuseum as “Young Belgian Talent” in 2010 - S.M.A.K. (museum of contemporary arts in Ghent) as “Coming People”

 

EXHIBITIONS:

- Taman Ismail Marzuki Jakarta, Utan Kayu Jakarta,

- S.M.A.K. Ghent,

- Musée de la Photographie Charleroi,

- De Brakke Grond Amsterdam,

- Bozar Brussel,

- Mediatine Brussel,

- B-Gallery Brussel,

- Cultuurcentrum Strombeek,

- ARTIS Den Bosch,

- Centre Culturel Français (CCF)

- Surabaya, Espace Niemeyer Paris, etc.

 

PUBLICATIONS:

2015 - “Inside Embassies” is published by Art Paper Editions

 

Her recent artistic work and research handles the subject of Indonesia’s 1965 genocide and its suc-ceeding brainwash.