Hestu Setu Legi
Hestu Setu Legi was born in 1971 in Yogyakarta. He co-founded two institutions for arts and culture, Taring Padi in 1998 and Jogja InterKultur in 2012. He now focuses more on his work as a visual artist, which mostly deals with social and environmental themes. Legi’s multimedia installations have been shown in exhibitions ranging from Biennale Jogja XI and ID, the 25th anniversary show of Cemeti Art House (2013), and in a solo exhibition at Ark Galerie (2014).
At Framer Framed his work has been on show as part of Pressing Matters (2018) a group exhibition featuring 24 artists from Indonesia, brought together by artist Kevin van Braak. Split up into three interconnected parts, the exhibition addresses pressing socio-political issues in Indonesia. The exhibition space will be transformed into a printing workshop, focusing specifically on local collective practices, mutual exchange, activism, and the boundaries and overlaps between art and craft. The work Hestu Setu Legi contributed to the exhibition shows a local farmer whose land is threatened to be taken away from him in light of the new airport that is being built in Yogyakarta. One eye shows a bullet, symbolising the targeting of Yogyakarta’s local residents; the other shows an airplane propeller. In the farmer’s headpiece, there is a reference to local nature; the Merapi mountains of Yogyakarta.
In 2022 Hestu Setu Legi visited Framer Framed with the art collective Taring Padi to present Wayang kardus – recycled cardboard puppets – one of their artistic projects to support people in their struggles for social justice. As part of the project for the upcoming documenta fifteen, Taring Padi has been visiting places and sharing skills of creating cardboard puppets through collaborative workshops as a way to stand in solidarity with different activist groups and communities around the world. With this edition at Framed Framed titled Struggle and Solidarity, members of Taring Padi; Hestu Setu Legi, Dhomas ‘El Kamprestoz’ Yudistira, and Alexander Supartono invite the audience to collectively give shape and sound to the space together with some Amsterdam based artists.
Together with participants of the Wayang Kardus Workshops at Framer Framed and other locations, Taring Padi co-produced cardboard puppets that were later presented at documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition Tanah Merdeka (2023) on show at Framer Framed continues this approach with the realisation of new collaborative works. During a one-month residency in Brazil, four members of Taring Padi developed Retomar Nossa Terra / Rebut Tanah Kita (2023) in collaboration with the Jewish Brazilian cultural centre Casa do Povo and the Brazilian landless movement, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), followed by the production of the banner De Levende Erfenis van Koloniaal Geweld (2023) at Framer Framed in Amsterdam. In the video below Hestu Setu Legi tells more about this experience.
- Art and Australia - The Work of Justice Taring Padi
- NRC - Taring Padi: 'Muslim fundamentalists see us as threat because we are punk'
- Hyperallergic - Legacy and Life of a Political Art Collective
- Personal website of Setu Legi
- Art & Market - A Conversation with Taring Padi
- Taring Padi
Links
Exhibitions
Exhibition: Tanah Merdeka
An exhibition with the Indonesian art & activist collective, Taring Padi, reflecting on the concept of land as the object and site of decolonial struggles.
Project: Do It Together - DIT
DIT is a kitchen / a tent / a learning playground / a workshop...................
