The work of Balinese art maestro Made Wianta is again exhibited at Locca Sea House. But this time, the exhibition also presents the renowned Swiss artist who is a friend of exchanging ideas and perspectives, Stephan Spicher .
The exhibition initiated by JHub Art Space in the 2023 art project series will open to the public on Wednesday (20/12/2023).
Exhibition curator Yudha Bantono said that the painting exhibition was interpreted as more than just a collaboration as well as a meeting or dialogue between west and east that had existed for more than a quarter of a century.
Talking about layering time or folding time, according to him, is a concept that is actually difficult to understand and has captured the human imagination for centuries, and has been the subject of exploration and contemplation for most artists.
From the experience of Swiss artist Stephan Spicher and Balinese artist Made Wianta (deceased), they both have accumulated experiences exchanging ideas, learning from each other from different cultural backgrounds, working together, collaborating and exhibiting together in a short time span which is a consistency in joint art project.
The presence of works by Made Wianta and Stephan Spicher, whether they were made individually or together after the two of them met in the period until Wianta died, is a glimpse of the deep implications of the achievements of their respective works.
Furthermore, according to Yudha, both Stephan Spicher and Made Wianta , they are not being carried away by the romanticism of meetings that take inspiration from the past, they are diving into the ideas of the events they have done, then capturing the essence and presenting it as a very important re-conversation.
The meeting of both himself and his work is a thought that brings to life the stories of a forgotten civilization between the West and the East, then brings it back to the viewer to a different time. Through the work of Stephan Spicher and Made Wianta in this exhibition, we can witness not only the beauty of the work, but the meeting of thoughts that makes it still relevant and accessible today.
Bali is Stephan’s second home, and this island is not only the nature and cultural life that fascinates him. However, the community’s way of life is all organized based on maintained cultural traditions. That was the case with Wianta when he lived in Basel and Rancate Ticino, the Italian part of Switzerland.
Wianta enthusiastically responded to what he saw and felt about Basel and Ticino. Wianta’s thoughts as a Balinese person were truly felt differently when he had to collide with the reality of life in Europe, and this was the same experience for Stephan when he was in Bali.
The meeting of Stephan and Made Wianta made it so that at the artistic level there was a meeting that could continue to be dialogued and even discussed as a discussion material between their artworks. both of them respected each other at their respective achievement points. Maybe this is the way of those who have long experience living and interacting with art and culture in Europe and Asia.
Stephan Spicher and Made Wianta’s leaping thoughts increasingly bring together how he opens himself up to always discussing his anxiety about world developments. Their next meeting resulted in joint art projects, as they had previously done, namely Crossing Line, which had been exhibited in Bali, Basel, St. Petersburg, and Moscow. Then recently in February 2023 “Between Chaos and Form” in Bali returned.
After working together, the two artists brought their own spirits and continued to produce works that tied their perspectives together, Wianta an eastern artist who saw the west universally in his own way as a Balinese. Likewise, Stephan as a western artist with his eastern spirit that he continues to develop to meet in an important dialogue in the development of his works.
As a continuation of the art project between Made Wianta and Stephan Spicher that is currently being discussed, Yudha Bantono as curator and Project Director of the Wianta Foundation will later exhibit the works of these two artists in the form of a joint exhibition at the II Rivellino Leonardo Davinci Gallery Locarno Switzerland, precisely in March 2024.
Putu Agung Prianta as the founder of JHub Art Space feels proud to be involved in presenting this very prestigious exhibition, because Wianta is one of the first Indonesian artists to exhibit at Il Rivellino Leonardo Davinci Gallery, which was previously a painter’s studio famous for its Mona Lisa paintings.
“The Layering Time exhibition will be held at Locca Sea House and is scheduled to last for a month from 20 December 2023 to 20 January 2024. The reason for holding it on 20 December 2024 is to remember and celebrate Made Wianta’s birthday ,” added Putu Agung.
Through Layering Time, the life experiences and works of Made Wianta and Stephan Spicher have sparked interesting questions about the nature of time itself at this time or for the future. Is time linear, or can it be folded and manipulated in reading their works? The answer may lie in the power of their artworks, where imagination and creativity have the power to go beyond conventional boundaries to answer everything.
