Q1. Where are you from and what language are you used to speak there?
Duto HARDONO: Indonesian. Mostly Bahasa (Indonedian), which is the official language in Indonesia, English occasionally, and Sundanese to the locals where I live in. Indonesia has different vernacular languages in every provinces or tribes.
Q2. Do you live in the urban or suburban?
H: I live in the north of Bandung. I think you can call it a suburban area.
Q3. Have you ever been to other Southeast Asian cities?
H: I just came back from Singapore yesterday for a 3 day experimental music festival called “Playfreely+” which is curated at Goodman Arts Centre by The Observatory. It was amazing to meet some other new artists/musicians who have different backgrounds and to collaborate with for some performances, which resulted in lots of surprises & interesting stuff. I’m hunger for more. And about the city, I really like the area where I stayed (around Bugis) where has lots of good restaurants and bars to visit. I love the foods there. I visited the famous Orchard Road but found it boring. Don’t get me wrong, I love shopping—I really enjoyed Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara while I was in Tokyo during artist residency program—but Orchard Rd just reminds me of all the malls in Jakarta, being squeezed to make it closer which is kinda depressing to me.
Q4. Do you enjoy to work under the "regional" (by regional I mean Southeast Asia) measure?
H: Yes, we could use it as our very own political reasons, ideas, or scheme. But it could also become a boomerang if we couldn’t use it correctly.
Q5. How long have you been working as an artist?
H: I think my first professional exhibition was held in 2005, so I’d say about 8-9 years.
Q6. What do you think is the most important thing in Project Glocal?
H: Communication, curiosity, open minded thinking, courage, naughtiness.
Q7. What is your favorite media or subject in art making?
H: I majored in painting in my undergraduate years, but I don’t think I ever made any conventional painting on canvas. I’d like to work between every other mediums. Recently, I did more site specific installation & performance which I did less comparatively. I think my works always talk about the relationship between humans, time & places. Whatever the particular issue is, it seems always starts from those ideas.
Q8. What do you expect to achieve in Taipei residency?
H: I want to make some interesting works that challenge our different culture background, as well as to find/make certain things that could be a new foundation or experiences for my next work in the future. To cooperate with artists with different backgrounds in Taipei will be interesting. I won’t close the possibility just for certain people to work with. But, if you ask me to choose, recently I have the idea about collaborating with a group of choir or kids.
See also:
- Duto Hardono (How to perform John Cage's 4'33'' on a loop delay as demonstrated by a band of cacti [2009])
- Laughter, Boos, and Silence: Duto Hardono in Conversation with Roger McDonald
