{"id":100,"date":"2021-03-29T15:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T15:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caglark-23f4.temp-dns.com\/who-you-are\/2017\/09\/27\/jogja-residency-notes-on-week-two\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:55:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:55:37","slug":"jogja-residency-notes-on-week-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caglark.com\/who-you-are\/jogja-residency-notes-on-week-two\/","title":{"rendered":"jogja residency – week two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once my research and meetings with artists was well underway, my work at PSBK continued with auditions to find Jogja actors.\u00a0 The call was sent out via an advert on What\u2019s App, Instagram and Facebook, mostly to people who were known to PSBK and to Project Manager Iteq, and word travelled fast.<\/p>\n

The first idea was to find a group of actors to work with for two days.\u00a0 However, during the auditions we saw 11 actors\/performers, and I wanted to work with them all.\u00a0 Another idea we explored was to conduct one workshop in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) and one in English, but as it turned out that there were essentially two groups of actors applying \u2013 one more movement based, one more experienced in acting for drama, so it made sense to divide the days according to that.<\/p>\n

It was challenging to see all 11 people, one after another, when I had originally planned to meet about four!\u00a0 People kept responding right up to the last minute.\u00a0 Two of the actors I met with were already part of the current group of artists in residence at PSBK, and since I was scheduled to do a separate workshop with resident artists in my third week, in the end I made the decision not to invite these two for the impro sessions, since I wanted to have fresh and equal start with everyone in the residency.<\/p>\n

Movement and live art based artists scare me a little bit because it\u2019s not my area of expertise, and so I was hesitant to have an impro session based around movement.\u00a0 However, part of this residency is an opportunity for me to push myself out of my comfort zone.\u00a0 And having Michael (my support worker and project assistant) on board created backup support.<\/p>\n

So, we scheduled one impro day for Monday (18 Sept) and one for the following Monday (25 September). The first was to be more movement based (5 actors) and the second more drama\/scenes\/scenarios (4 actors).<\/p>\n

Following the auditions on Saturday, I met with the resident artists at PSBK and it was our first official introduction.\u00a0 The first question they asked was what I was planning during our time together \u2013 on the already agreed theme of \u201cCollaboration\u201d. My response to that was, if I tell you what we are going to do, then it wouldn\u2019t be a collaboration, so we are going to figure that out together. However, I gave everyone a piece of paper and I\u2019ve asked them to write one word each day \u2013 What makes you who you are? \u00a0Also, I\u2019ve asked them to take photos of anything in their immediate surroundings \u2013 if they see something in which they recognise themselves, or identify with. It will be another way of answering the same question.<\/p>\n

Sunday afternoon, I had a long conversation with Rismilliana Wijayanti (Ris) in the garden at Nanamia Pizza. Ris is a freelance curator and artistic director of Jogja Contemporary that I met at their opening the previous week. Ris was very open and generous with her time and we had long chat.\u00a0 One thing that stayed with me that she said, was that young artists always ask her \u201cWhat is my place in the art scene? What should I do?\u201d Her response is there is no place\/no such thing \u2013 you need to claim your place.\u00a0 The other thing she said that stayed with me is that art and artists are at their best when they have a common enemy.<\/p>\n

In terms of her career, what works well for Ris is that she has a lot of collaborations and works for many different organisations (Jogja Contemporary, Jogja Biennale, Jogja Street Sculpture Project, to name a few), wearing many different hats. But she stays independent of institutions, and that keeps her horizons open and allows her to create a wide range of relationships. Ris pointed me in the direction of several different artists that I wanted to meet from different backgrounds and disciplines.<\/p>\n

\"A
Workshop Day 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Two
Workshop Day 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Impro day on Monday.\u00a0 Through the movement exercises and impros we explored how do we see ourselves and how do other people see us, with five exciting Jogja actors.\u00a0 Through mapping and movement exercises, we explored relationships between ourselves and our families\u2013 how people felt about where they were born and how their parents and grandparents may have felt about where they were born.\u00a0 What does it mean to be in this space right now and how did we get here? This work created some beautiful, very strong moments of movement, body shapes, and interactions.<\/p>\n

In the afternoon, we developed impros out of ideas about who we are, how we project ourselves, and how we are perceived. Throughout the day, there were lots of words used in the exploration of What Makes Us Who We Are, both as individuals and in relationships, including the relationship between the actors and the characters they play. I\u2019m currently gathering these words into word maps, which is a tool I continue to use in my work.<\/p>\n