Iwan Wijono
Java Artist- Performance Art, Video Art
Iwan Wijono was born in a few decades ago, under the Soeharto regime in the city of Solo, Central Java, in the strong moslem Javanese family, where the influence of the feudal culture is still strong. Also where the global culture situation (from the west) is dominated and becomes the standard of existence for the middle class to the top. While studying international law (graduated from Indonesian Islamic University) and painting (Indonesian Institute Of Art) in Jogjakarta (Indonesia), Wijono became active in the pro-democracy movement against the Soeharto regime, who was known to be KKN (Collusion, corruption and nepotism) and to guard against the continuation of the power of the Soeharto government who were known to be feudalistic, capitalistic and militaristic. And morover the young Indonesians who had a new ideology that is 3M : Microsoft, Mc Donalds, MTV.
In the 1990’s he became known as a pro-democracy street performer with (or without) political demonstration. Besides a political awareness, Wijono gained an aesthetic understanding that performance art was a milieu that could be undertaken anywhere and was not restricted by exhibition space, public or even the time of the activity. His early performance art interventions evolved to include arts events both locally and internationally throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. (lorongpanggung.blogspot.com)
