Visual and performance artist Aliansyah Caniago was born in 1987 in Tangerang, Indonesia. He studied painting at Bandung Institute of Technology Faculty Art and Design and he participated in many performance art workshops with Boris Nieslony (German), Waldemar Tatatchuk and Janusz Baldyga (Poland), Lee Wen (Singapore), Seiji Shimoda (Japan), Aor Nopawan (Thailand) and he is now one of the disciples of Melati Suryodarmo in his performance art practice in Solo, Indonesia.

Caniago is known as a performance artist concerned with activism and social realism in public space. He has done interventions and site-specific projects fostering an art that could blend in with society, entering conflicted spaces creatively and working with communities to repair the damaged environment through art. Often asking public participation, he invites his audiences to actively get involved in the process of his art making, installations, and durational performances.

Well known for his participation in group exhibitions and performance art events both locally and internationally, Alin was also one of the founders of an artist collective space in Bandung, Ruang Gerilya. This space functioned to provide a platform for experimental works and artists with an interest in the process, strong research, and a unique method, as well as holding discussions, artist talks and workshops. Alin has also received the 4th Bazaar Art Award Jakarta 2011, Indonesia, Top Honor Indonesian Art Award in Jakarta 2015, Indonesia and The Winner of Bandung Contemporary Art Award 2015, Bandung, Indonesia.

His last Solo Exhibition – Point of Return (2015) was part of an ongoing art project he did in Situ Ciburuy, a lake located in a ‘peripheral’ area of Bandung. A damaged Lake contaminated by industrial plants and homes built around the Lake. In his performance piece, he asked a fisherman to allow his old abandoned boat to be pulled out of the lake and dragged towards ‘the central’ (the 0 km landmark in Bandung). He dragged the boat through the streets to bring attention to the negative impact of modernization upon ‘the peripheral’ —like for instance what has happened in Situ Ciburuy—in order to bring the suffering of such marginalized communities towards ‘the central’ of attention. He then made an installation in the gallery from the artifacts of the performance. Through acts such as this, Alin devises strategies to draw important issues into the attention of a wider audience and public.

Artist Talk: Aliansyah Caniago & Phu Luc | Discussing Performance Art I (March 17, 2018)

Collaborative Performance | Artists Talk (April 1, 2018)