LOOKING AT THE BIG SKY: Deden H Durahman

Talk
Saturday 18 October 2014
Guest speaker
Melati Suryodarmo & Deden Hendan Durahman

'Looking at the Big Sky' is a traveling program by Goethe Institut (http://www.goethe.de/) of 14 videos by students from four art schools in Germany: Braunschweig University of Art, Düsseldorf Art Academy, Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, and Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. The selection was made by Renate Buschmann (http://www.imaionline.de/) and Leonhard Emmerling. The videos range from fictional narratives and stagings to individual assertions and performances, from found-footage montages to pseudo documentaries. At the same time, two major perspectives crystallize in the works: 'The Beauty of the Familiar' aim towards personal introspection that divines meaning in the inconspicuous and unspectacular, 'Departures for Tomorrow' encompasses films seeking to formulate an outlook on the immeasurable and indeterminate. The choice of 'Looking at the Big Sky' is associated with the hope that the ideas and illusions knows no boundaries, that the sky is the limit. At the same time, it sounded like an appeal to the participating artists to venture a look at longings, utopias and great aspirations, and to think the existing concepts of authenticity and beauty beyond the present.