Press room
Citra Sasmita: Into Eternal Land
Installation view of Citra Sasmita, Timur Merah Project IX: Beyond the Realm of Senses (Allegory of the Archipelago), as part of Choreographies of the Impossible, 35th São Paulo Biennale, Brazil, 2023 © Levi Fanan / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
This exhibition is made possible thanks to Lead Support from the Bagri Foundation, with additional support from the Henry Moore Foundation.
In January 2025, Indonesian artist Citra Sasmita will transform The Curve for her first solo exhibition in the UK. Working fluidly across the mediums of painting, sculptural installation, embroidery and scent, Sasmita will invite visitors on a symbolic, multi-sensory journey through the 90-metre-long gallery, exploring ideas of ancestral memory, ritual and migration.
Sasmita’s practice often engages with the Indonesian Kamasan painting technique. Dating from the fifteenth century, and traditionally practiced exclusively by men, Kamasan was used to narrate Hindu epics. Reclaiming this masculine practice, Sasmita is interested in dismantling misconceptions of Balinese culture and confronting its violent colonial past. Challenging gender hierarchies and reinventing mythologies, her protagonists are powerful women who populate a post-patriarchal world.
Citra Sasmita (b. 1990, Bali, Indonesia) is a self-taught artist; she studied literature and physics, then worked as a short story illustrator for the Bali Post before she began developing her expanded artistic practice. Major group exhibitions include the forthcoming Toronto Biennial of Art (Canada, 2024); After Rain, Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale (Saudi Arabia, 2024); Ten Thousand Suns, 24th Biennale of Sydney (Australia, 2024); Choreographies of the Impossible, 35th São Paulo Biennale (Brazil, 2023); The Open World, 3rd Thailand Biennale, Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park, Chiang Rai (Thailand, 2023); Garden of Ten Seasons, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin (Germany, 2022); Kathmandu Triennale (Nepal, 2021-2022); ARTJOG MMXXII, Time To Wonder, Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta (Indonesia, 2021); and the Biennale Yogyakarta (Indonesia, 2019). Solo shows include Atlas of Curiosity, Yeo Workshop (Singapore, 2023); Ode To The Sun, Yeo Workshop (Singapore, 2020); Tales of Nowhere, Museum MACAN, Jakarta (Indonesia, 2020); and Under The Skin, Redbase Foundation, Yogyakarta (Indonesia, 2018).
Citra Sasmita: Into Eternal Land
The Curve, Barbican
30 January – 20 April 2025
@barbicancentre
Hannah Carr - Communications Manager, Visual Arts : [email protected] / 020 3834 1191
Lily Booth - Communications Officer, Visual Arts : [email protected]
Georgia Holmes - Communications Assistant, Visual Arts : [email protected]