26 Facts About Melati Suryodarmo

Melati Suryodarmo was born on 12 July 1969 and is an Indonesian durational performance artist.

Melati Suryodarmo's physically demanding performances make use of repetitive motions and often last for many hours, sometimes reaching "a level of factual absurdity".

Melati Suryodarmo lived there for 20 years, studying performance art at the Braunschweig University of Art with Butoh choreographer Anzu Furukawa and performance artist Marina Abramovic.

Melati Suryodarmo later returned to Indonesia and founded Undisclosed Territory, an annual festival for performance art.

Melati Suryodarmo was the first woman to serve as artistic director for the Jakarta Biennale.

Melati Suryodarmo was born on 12 July 1969 in Surakarta, Indonesia.

Melati Suryodarmo's father, Suprapto "Prapto" Suryodarmo, was a meditative performer and practitioner of Amerta.

Melati Suryodarmo learned Tai Chi early on and began learning Sumarah mediation at the age of 11.

Melati Suryodarmo participated in student demonstrations against the Suharto regime in late 1980s and was part of the underground student association.

Melati Suryodarmo graduated with a degree in international relations and politics in 1993.

Melati Suryodarmo was involved in theatre and dance performances from 1988 to 1995.

Melati Suryodarmo found work retouching photographs and planned to continue her studies in international relations.

Melati Suryodarmo received a fine arts degree in 2001 and an MFA in performance art in 2002.

Melati Suryodarmo performed as a "living installation" alongside her former professor during the 2003 Venice Biennale.

Melati Suryodarmo founded the performance art festival Undisclosed Territory in 2007 in her hometown of Solo.

From 2013 to 2016, Melati Suryodarmo served as guest lecturer at Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta.

In 2017, Melati Suryodarmo was the first woman to have the role of artistic director for the Jakarta Biennale.

Melati Suryodarmo had a solo exhibition at Museum Macan in 2020.

Melati Suryodarmo typically produces one or two new performances every year.

Many of Melati Suryodarmo's pieces are physically demanding, durational forms of performance art.

Melati Suryodarmo has performed throughout Europe and Asia as well as in North America.

Melati Suryodarmo debuted the 20-minute performance in 2000 at Berlin's Hebbel Theatre.

Melati Suryodarmo enters to the sound of ceremonial Indonesian drumming that usually accompanies the Pakarena, a Bugis dance from Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Melati Suryodarmo devised the 2005 piece The Black Ball for a retrospective on painter Egon Schiele.

Melati Suryodarmo has performed I Love You in England, Sweden, and Malaysia.

In 2012, Melati Suryodarmo created a photographic series influenced by Egon Schiele called The Acts of Indecency in 2012.