Residency
Pacific-Leipzig
Meita Meilita and Theo Nugraha will spend three months in the residency program at the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei.
At the beginning of the 20th century the Baumwollspinnerei (cotton mill) was the site of Europe’s largest processing center for cotton. Today it houses the cultural center for one of the most exciting places for the production and exhibition of contemporary art and culture in Europe. From August to October 2021, Meita Meilita and Theo Nugraha from Indonesia—together with the other international artists—will take part in the residency program at the Art and Culture Centre Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei hosted by Leipzig International Art Programme (LIA).
During their stay in Leipzig, the artists in residence will be accompanied by the LIA team, receive their own studios, and have opportunities to experiment and exhibit at the Baumwollspinnerei. The residency program cherishes cultural and artistic exchange within the local and international art community and uses the location dynamics and surroundings to create works on site.
Meita Meilita and Theo Nugraha will present their findings and artworks in the public final presentation by the end of the residency.
Biography of artists:
Meita Meilita
is currently in the Fine Arts master’s degree program at the Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia. Her personal experiences as a child, wife, and mother are the predominant themes in her artwork. For Meita, family constitutes the smallest social sphere of society. Meita is an embroidery artist who applies her art form to various types of presentation, including installation art and participatory art. Engaging in embroidery is for her an intimate process and part of the identity of personal work. Meita uses intimacy and honesty as self-control in relating her experiences in the art of embroidery.She has a strong bond to the creation of works through embroidery techniques since 2015. Her creations are nearly always associated with domestic work and women. She interprets the domestic issues into her personal experience as a child, wife, and mother in the family—the smallest social sphere in society. Menyulam Kenangan (2015) is the starting point for conveying her anxiety about the structure and role of the family. The context of “broken home” runs through the memory of family members, six mothers who were embroidered and assembled in a house representing a child’s hope of family unity. Menyulam Kenangan will continue to develop into other forms and ideas related to my self-view as a woman vis-à-vis family.
Theo Nugraha
is a sound artist from Samarinda. He has been part of the Indonesian experimental sound scene since 2013. His discography contains almost 200 releases. He is the co-founder of EXTENDED ASIA, co-artistic director of MUARASUARA, and the co-curator for the Kota Samarinda Museum. Theo is currently participating in an experimental visual group with Milisifilem Collective, performance art at 69 Performance Club, and is the editor of the VJ> Play column at Visual Jalanan.His work focuses on exploration and findings from sound, body, visual experimentation and collaborative work across disciplines. When we talk about sound, we can see how the duration, appearance, motion, light and events work in a composition. Sound contains a diversity of complex elements, which are particularly apparent in the variety of sound discourses in Indonesia due to the different cultures and traditions on each island.
He is interested in revisiting the relationship between the management of sound work in an area and how sounds are interpreted in soundscape practice. Soundscapes enable recognition of sounds and the culture contained in the area.