Reza Afisina
Born in Bandung, Indonesia, Reza Afisina (1977) studied film and has been showing performance and installation works at home and abroad. Using his own body as media, Reza explores the impossibility of representing pain as the effect of external and systemic violence. He carries out punishment voluntary that is essentially an act of God. His work is about compliance with religion and a society of media which imposes compelling forces of surveillance on individuals. Reza is an active member of Ruang Rupa and works collaboratively with artists in both Indonesia and overseas.
Ruangrupa is an artists' initiative established in 2000 by a group of artists in Jakarta. It is a non-profit organization that strives to support the progress of art ideas within the urban context and the larger scope of the culture, by means of exhibitions, festivals, art labs, workshops, research, and journal publication. Since 2008, ruangrupa has developed a number of new activities and altered several other activities in order to make them better integrated and focused, to serve as the basis for their collaborative work, researches, supporting activities, and the development of Indonesian contemporary art.
Activities of ruangrupa include the Promotion and Support Division that runs the exhibitionspace RURU Gallery, workshops and the Jakarta 32°c bienniall, the Art Lab that serves as a collaborative space for individual artists as well as interdisciplinary groups from Indonesia and abroad.