ROH is pleased to share Tromarama's upcoming participation in CLOUD WALKERS at Leeum Museum of Art, South Korea.
As the shape of our lives are changed by climate crisis, pandemic, and war, we find ourselves moved to a fundamental reconsideration of the value systems implemented over the past century. Today, needing both a macro point of view and a micro level of care, we are called to expand our perspectives to span countries and regions, to form new cultural solidarities and cultivate the kind of imaginative power that transforms civilizations. At the same time, we must also reexamine the role of Asian art and society as a whole in this historical moment, when Asia’s influence on the world order has grown so significantly. How might we move beyond the complex entanglements of existing geopolitical frameworks toward a more sustainable, liberated, and considered future?
The genesis of Cloud Walkers, an exhibition by Leeum Museum of Art, lives in this line of questioning. The “cloud” here speaks to climate, imagination, and hyperlinks alike; it stands as a metaphor for the new sociocultural environment of the 21st century and serves as a virtual platform for sharing across geopolitical boundaries. The works in this exhibition are by those who move freely through this cloud world—the walkers and flâneurs, workers and doers, dreamers and visionaries. Coming from a wide range of backgrounds, these artists bring new and critical perspectives to the issues faced by our contemporary—and future—society. Striking a balance between mutual benefit and technological development, they start from a place of accountability about the state of our planet and work toward sustainable coexistence in both research and practice, freely reconstituting huge data sets as they unfurl their strange and seemingly limitless imaginations across time and space, inviting us to experience new synesthetic worlds of intersections between material and immaterial, real and virtual. Here and now, we hope to glimpse some of the fresh possibilities and dynamism inherent in Asian art writ large, refracted through the diverse worlds depicted by these guides who walk slightly ahead, a few steps already into the future.
Participating artists: Kengo Kuma, Đoàn Thanh Hà, stpmj Architecture, Kazuya Katagiri, Moon Kyungwon (feat. Jeeu Kim), A.A. Murakami, WKND Lab, Jinyeong Yeon, Yuima Nakazato, Kim Cho-yeop, Himali Singh Soin, Natasha Tontey, Bek Hyunjin, Wong Ping, Lu Yang, Hyun Nahm, motoguo (feat. ejin sha), Minki Hong, aaajiao, Tromarama, Samson Young, Tishan Hsu, Guan Xiao, Lawrence Lek
Artist
Art collective formed in 2006
Tromarama is an art collective consisting of Febie Babyrose, Herbert Hans, and Ruddy Hatumena whose artistic interests include the notion of hyperreality and interrelationships between the virtual and the physical worlds. Their art often combines video, installation, and algorithmic based computer programming.
Tromarama has participated in major exhibitions at various notable institutions worldwide. Selected solo exhibitions namely Auto Ally at DOCUMENT Space, Chicago, USA (2024); Contraflow at Kiang Malingue, Tin Wan, Hong Kong (2023); PERSONALIA at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2022); Beta at DOCUMENT Space, Chicago, USA (2021) and at Paris Internationale with ROH Projects, Paris, France (2019); LLIMIIINALL at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Wan Chai, Hong Kong (2019); Amphibia at Centre A, Vancouver, Canada (2017); and Tromarama at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands (2015). Notable special projects include Tromarama: The Lost Jungle at the Children’s Art Space at Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia (2021-2022); Madakaripura with Edouard Malingue Gallery in Islington, London, UK (2020); and Private Riots at Encounters, Art Basel Hong Kong presented by Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong (2016). Tromarama’s selected group exhibitions include Digital Diaries at Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf, Germany (2024); Kunsthal Charlottenborg Biennale: Public Structures in Copenhagen, Denmark (2023); 84 Steps at Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2023); CLOUD WALKERS at Leeum Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea (2022); NOT IN MY NAME at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel (2022); 1 at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2022); The Turn of the Fifth Age at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia (2021); NGV Triennial at National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2020); Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia (2019); The Extra Extra Ordinary at Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, Philippines (2018); Cinerama at Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2017); Jakarta Biennale 2015: Neither Back nor Forward: Acting in the Present at Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem, Jakarta, Indonesia (2015); and the 11th Gwangju Biennale: The Eighth Climate (What Does Art Do?) in Gwangju, South Korea (2016); and more. Tromarama is the commissioned artist for the moving image work screened on the M+ Facade, M+ Museum, Hong Kong in the third quarter of 2023.
View ArtistCopyright belongs to The Artist
Curated by June Young Kwak, Leeum Museum of Art
Text by e-flux
Photography by Leeum Museum
Courtesy of The Artist, Leeum Museum, and ROH