Tag: The Rootless Man

b. 1971, Solo, Central Java

While studying international law (he graduated from Indonesian Islamic University) and painting (Indonesian Institute Of Art) in Jogjakarta (Indonesia), Wijono became active in the pro-democracy movement against the Soeharto regime. In the 1990’s he became known as a pro-democracy street performer with (or without) political demonstration. Besides a political awareness, Wijono gained an aesthetic understanding that performance art was a milieu that could be undertaken anywhere and was not restricted by exhibition space, public or even the time of the activity. His early performance art interventions evolved to include arts events both locally and internationally throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. 

Wijono, president of the contemporary art organization in Jogjakarta, Performance Klub, which is organized monthly action art event as WED ACTION (2003, 2005), AMBULANCE ART FESTIVAL ’05, annual action art activism in public communities as PERFURBANCE Performance Art Urban Festival, beside another public action art event in down town as CHAOS DAB! Widjono is member of TAV The Artists Village (Singapore), member international performance art movement New World Disorder International, redaction board INTER arte actuel magazine, Quebec City (Canada), registered as spiritual healer in the World Pranic Healing Foundation.

Iwan Wijono has participated in several important art events, including: LIVE Performance Art Biennale (Vancouver, Canada, 2007), In The Context Of Art–The Differences, (Warsaw, Poland, 2006), FOI / Future Of Imagination (Singapore, 2003), ASIATOPIA Performance Art Festival (Thailand, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2007), NIPAF / Nippon International Performance Art Festival (Japan, 1999, 2004, 2010), Havana Biennale (Cuba, 2001), 7a*11d International Performance Art Festival (Toronto, Canada, 2002), RIAP / Recountre Internacional Arte de Performance (Quebec City, Canada 2004), Novena Muestra Internacional de Performance (Mexico City, Mexico 2000), PAN ASIA ’10 (Gwangju, Incheon, Korea, 2010).

Iwan Wijono’s The Rootless Man is curated in the context of FADO’s Public Places / Private Spaces series. The performance is presented at the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art.

In The Rootless Man, Iwan Wijono considers the commodification of culture and the destruction of nature, using a remote-controlled toy dump truck filled with earth. Wijono writes about his concerns:

“We live on the earth, we need the earth; we need food and water from the earth. But modern people little by little have distanced themselves from the earth; they want to conquer the earth, benefit and profit form the earth without having to take care of it properly. Most modern people from morning til night do not even touch the earth, everybody wants to be a businessman or millionaire, nobody wants to be a laborer or farmer, nobody wants to get their hands dirty. Forests have been felled in the name of industry, villages increasingly become cities or ghost towns, where villagers move to the cities. When the earth is plagued by disease, there are no longer any forests or clean water, dollars can buy nothing!”

A second performance, Body for Rent / Body for Auction, will take place between November 7 and November 9 as a public intervention at local malls in Toronto. The artist will offer his body as a commodity for public sale. Audience members can negotiate to “rent” Wijono’s body for a purpose and length of their choosing.

Public Spaces / Private Places was a 3-year long international performance art series featuring 22 projects, created by 26 artists, from Canada, the US, Europe and Asia. The series explored the elements that turn neutral ‘space’ into meaningful ‘place’ through performances that examined the degrees of intimacy, connection and interaction that mark the dividing line between public and private. The series was particularly focused on performances created for intimate audiences. Some projects featured site-specific or installational environments that invited participants into a sensory or experiential journey. Others were process-oriented, involving public intervention, intimate gestures, or actions that were, by their nature, nearly invisible. Above all, the series explored the points where identity and geography intersect to generate meaning.

2002–2003
Walking and Getting Rid of Something by Kirsten Forkert
Promenades by Sylvie Cotton
The Rootless Man by Iwan Wijono
Disposition by Adina Bar-On

2001–2002
Talking to my Horse by Archer Pechawis
A Gathering for Her by Reona Brass
Mettachine (Sequence 1) by Louise McKissick
Feu de Joie by Randy & Berenicci
Open Surgery by Oreet Ashery & Svar Simpson
Remembrance Day by Johanna Householder
Disclosure by Undo
Meridian by Marilyn Arsem
One Stitch in Time by Devora Newmark

2000–2001
The Addmore Session by Istvan Kantor
spoken house by Otiose
Public Web by Tagny Duff
Numb/Hum: A Subterranean Metropolitan Opera by Christine Carson
Between Us by Jerzy Onuch
Ethel: Bloodline by Louise Liliefeldt
where do I go from here? by Stefanie Marshall
Urban Disco Trailer by Jinhan Ko
Evanescent Rumour by Tony Romano

The Public Spaces / Private Places series presented 22 performance projects between 2000–2003, and was curated by Paul Couillard.