Murni and Mondo

Karya I GAK Murniasih dan Mondo
04 -28 April 2008 | 09:00 - 19:00

Pusat Kebudayaan Italia
Jl. HOS. Cokroaminoto No. 117
Menteng Jakarta

+6221-3927 531/2

The world of Murni is that of a woman who lived and survived a violent and traumatizing world. Hardship taught her how to express her life onto the canvas. Initially taunted by educated arts elites, her arts proved to be more than mere stitches of objects that may rouse lewd impression or "vulgar trash" as some put it. The Bali-born artist depicts her feminine identity, mind and desire in bodily forms wrapped in a world of iconographies.

Thus it is unsurprising to find her works dominated by curves and distorted lines of a female body ─ imagine whimsical legs, busts, readily protruded by bizarre, often sharp, objects. Mondo Zanulini (mondo means "world" in Italian) was Murni's life partner as well as the person who encouraged her and believed in her arts. The eclectic Italian is a painter and artist and, recently, has been promoting the creation of a museum dedicated to Murni.

The paintings of Mondo and Murni can be confronted as two complimentary visions taking off from the contents of violence in men and women's relationships: women who witness their internal disintegration with consciousness and irony, often in a provocative manner but also constructively, in search of themselves (in Murni); women trapped under the table or held prisoners behind theatre scenes (in Mondo).

Mondo Zanulini's professional experience is impressive. His projects and works span from Bologna in the 70s to Bali two decades later, including taking part in the Biennale of Venice in 1993. He has been involved in painting exhibition and collaborations in writing, acting, and directing theatrical performances worldwide. This exhibition will afford Jakartans for the first time the chance to appreciate the particular atmosphere of Mondo Zanolini's works. Several of Murni's paintings that we will display have never been exposed previously.