Avant-Garde Now: Performing for the Camera
Project M+ Museum, Hong Kong

Artists: Melati SURYODARMO 麦拉蒂·苏若道默 | 

‘Performing for the Camera’ offers a day-long immersion into performance art on film, demonstrating how contemporary artists create at the intersection of performance and moving image. Featuring screenings, talks, and live performances by Eisa Jocson (b. 1986, Philippines), Florence Lam (b. 1992, Hong Kong), Melati Suryodarmo (b. 1969, Indonesia), and Kawita Vatanajyankur (b. 1987, Thailand), this lively programme explores the body’s relationship to spectacle, labour, capitalism, technology, endurance, vulnerability, and failure. A roundtable discussion involving all the artists unpacks the creative processes, inspirations, and intentions behind their practices.


Melati Suryodarmo | Screening and in-person conversation
Time: 14:00–15:00, House 1

This screening features a selection of video works documenting the durational performance art pieces created by Melati Suryodarmo between 2000 and 2014. Exergie—Butter Dance (2000), from the M+ Collection, depicts the artist dancing sensuously on slippery blocks of butter while wearing red stilettos. In I Love You (2007), Suryodarmo repeatedly utters the titular phrase while carrying a fragile glass pane within a small, red-lit room. Transaction of Hollows (2014) sees the artist firing arrows from a Javanese bow near her audience, creating a palpable sense of danger. Lologue (2014) takes place on oversized white stairs, where Suryodarmo's black bell-covered costume rings loudly, mediating between human and spiritual realms.

The screening will be followed by a talk with Melati Suryodarmo, moderated by Ulanda Blair, Curator, Moving Image. This talk will be held in English.

List of works on screening:
Exergie—Butter Dance (2000)
I Love You (2007)
Transaction of Hollows (2014)
Lologue (2014)

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