Present Continuous

with Museum MACAN

Aaron Seeto (Director, Museum MACAN) - Present Continuous / Sekarang Seterusnya was initiated by Museum MACAN as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. The COVID-19 Pandemic has required us to imagine new ways to connect artists and audiences, as well as to think differently about how to undertake research and collaboration.

From the COVID-19 disruption, new forms of creativity, collaboration, and support have emerged. Present Continuous / Sekarang Seterusnya has developed through collaboration with some of Indonesia’s most vital arts organizations and contemporary art biennales. In the Indonesian context, where both access to technology and geography pose barriers to participation, organizational collaboration is one way to work through these limitations. Together with our collaborating partner organizations, we have commissioned four artists and two art collectives to develop new work for this exhibition, they have been supported by a curator connected to the artist’s local area. More than just an exhibition in Jakarta, Present Continuous / Sekarang Seterusnya is designed as a platform to give voice
to artistic communities over a larger geographic context, connecting them through a program of talks, presentations,
and online group discussions.

Present Continuous / Sekarang Seterusnya opens critical strands of conversation represented by different perspectives and practices, where we learn about artists and local cultural issues that impact communities across the country. In this exhibition and throughout the related online programs, we explore how artists navigate complex local and national politics; collective memory; histories of sound and their relationship to ideas of ‘neighborhood’; mythology and plants; and artist-led ‘creative’ industries that result in real policy change and ground-up economic development, from geographic that spans from Banda Aceh, Bandung, Majalengka, Makassar, to Jayapura.