(b.1976, Yogyakarta, Indonesia)


Jompet Kuswidananto's dramatic multimedia works combine video, sound and kinetic sculpture. Many of his installations feature phantoms; bodiless figures dressed in an eclectic mix of Indonesian clothes and accessories from different ethnic or ceremonial traditions. Their place of origin, the 'third realm' is - like his homeland, the island of Java - a place between continents and oceans, where different peoples, cultures and religions become syncretised. Jompet often refers to what he calls the 'third reality' which, in his words, is 'an attempt to reconcile, manipulate or overcome disparate or contradictory beliefs' and to mediate between the 'old' and the 'new', the 'genuine' and 'alien', the 'traditional' and the 'modern'; between 'us' and 'the other'. This syncretism is central to his work. 'There is no culture or people that is pure, for a culture always negotiates with another culture,' he points out. 'I take Javanese syncretism as a point of departure, but in fact syncretism is a global phenomenon.'