Workshop, Yogyakarta, 2011

This workshop is an extension of the Birdprayers project, involving around 60 elementary school kids from a little village in Bantul. While the workshop was done in an Islamic School with the aim to open eyes to diversity of religions in multicultural societies, Sara and Arya were building a dialogue with the childern by making masks in the various shapes of holy buildings. 
The next step of the workshop was that the children were encouraged to write a letter to God on the mask, so we could see an intimate expression and conversation by them with God; hoping to learn about their dreams and hopes and to notice that those are similar to all childern, no matter their culture or religion. 
At the end of the workshop the kids were lead in a procession while wearing their masks, toward an open field where their wishes and dreams could be sent into the universe.


This workshop happened with the support of Jogja Biennale 2011, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Camara by artists and  Kosong Tiga. Edited by Siska Raharja.

More pictures of Birdprayers in Berlin

Photographs of the public performances of Birdprayers in Berlin.

Pictures of the exhibition of Birdprayers at ID- Contemporary Art Indonesia in Kunstraum Kreuzberg - Bethanien in Berlin.

Some online reviews:

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/zeitung/religion-aus-fast-food/3623486.html

http://universes-in-universe.org/deu/nafas/articles/2011/id_indonesia

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6431251,00.html

http://www.kultiversum.de/Kunst-Themen/Indonesien-Kunstraum-Kreuzberg-Bethanien-Pagoden-auf-dem-Kopf.html

http://www.zitty.de/hyper-budaya.html

http://www.jungewelt.de/2011/01-04/017.php

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/schlammschlachten-im-kunstraum-bethanien/3692742.html

Mail for God

The Prayers Room is an interactive installation created for the exhibition “ID-Contemporary Art Indonesia” in Berlin. It is an outgrowth of the multi-site, multi-disciplinary and ongoing project Birdprayers.

A mailbox was placed inside a narrow, doorless room along with a table and a chair, paper and a blue felt-tip pen. 

The Prayers Room gave people the possibility to interact anonymously, freely and openly by writing individual letters and posting them in the mailbox which we called ‘Mail For God’. 

Here are some of the almost 300 letters people wrote:

Nya Luong and JC Lanca, the directors of the event "ID- Contemporary Art Indonesia", published a little booklet with more of these letters in a limited edition of 300. If you want to get your own copy, look in our shop: http://birdprayers.blogspot.com/p/shop.html

One Song

Every war and every conflict between human beings
has happened because of some disagreement about names.
It is such an unnecessary foolishness,
because just beyond the arguing
there is a long table of companionship
set and waiting for us to sit down.
What is praised is one, so the praise is one too,
many jugs being poured into a huge basin.
All religions, all this singing, one song.
The differences are just illusion and vanity.
Sunlight looks a little different on this wall
than it does on that wall
and a lot different on this other one,
but it is still one light.
We have borrowed these clothes,
these time-and-space personalities,
from a light, and when we praise,
we are pouring them back in.
- Jalaluddin Rumi

Treebute to Yogya

Another project we did, Treebute to Yogya (2009) won the Szpilman Award 2010.
http://www.award.szpilman.de/winner10.html

The Szpilman Award, named after the German art group Szpilman ,is awarded to works that exist only for a moment or a short period of time. The purpose of the award is to promote such works whose forms consist of ephemeral situations.

Since its beginnings in 2003 it is still the only art prize for ephemeral works in the world. The Szpilman Award is awarded annually.

Treebute to Yogya is a public performance which i made in collaboration with Arya Pandjalu. The Treebute for the performance is a very unusual motorcycle helmet. An extension of the helmet forms a plant pot, which contains a small Bayan tree. Five motor cyclists wore these extraordinary helmets to ride around  the streets of Yogyakarta. The motivation behind this work was to create a device that would instantly compensate for the carbon emitted by the motorcycles. 

http://www.award.zpilman.de/best10.nap.0.html

http://www.saranuytemans.net/birdprayers/Treebute.html
http://www.takepart.com/node/238865/actions

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/01/potted-plant-helmets-hit-the-streets-of-indonesia.php