Archived Media Release
12 September 2008
Indonesian-Australian Creative Collaboration a Highlight of Adelaide’s OzAsia Festival
Internationally renowned Indonesian artist Heri Dono will collaborate with Australian Indigenous performers and weavers in a ground-breaking interactive visual and performing arts project for the 2008 OzAsia Festival.
Taking up a four-week position as OzAsia Festival artist-in-residence, Heri Dono will be joined by Indonesian-Australian artist Jumaadi, winner of the 2007 John Coburn Emerging Artist’s Prize, to create a vivid and inspiring public installation and performance that incorporates dance, gamelan and didjeridu, shadow puppets and visual arts.
Heri and Jumaadi will also work with local students and young artists on the project, entitled Ose Tara Lia: I See Nothing.
Australian Ambassador Bill Farmer said that the OzAsia Festival would provide a rare opportunity for young Australian artists and students to work with one of Indonesia’s most creative and exciting contemporary artists.
“We are delighted Heri Dono, who is already well-known in Australia for his original and captivating work, is returning to Adelaide to take part in this festival which celebrates the close cultural relationship between Indonesia and Australia,” the Ambassador said.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is the keynote speaker at the OzAsia Festival Symposium on 20 September. Other speakers at the Symposium, which will explore cultural engagement between Australia and Asia, are politicians, academics, educators, business leaders, artists and community leaders, including acclaimed Indonesian poet Sitok Srengenge.
The project is funded by the Australian Government through the Australia-Indonesia Institute’s arts program which has been supporting creative links between Australians and Indonesians for 20 years. More information about how the Institute fosters bilateral cooperation and collaboration in the arts and culture is available at www.dfat.gov.au/aii.
More information on the OzAsia Festival is available at http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/ozasia/.
Media Enquiries:
Fiona Hoggart, First Secretary (Cultural) tel. (021) 2550 5260 mob. 0811 936 302