Yogyakarta, December 5th 2021─This year is a special moment for the HI Art and Music Festival or HIATUS. The art event from UGM International Relations students, which was previously scheduled to be held annually, had to suffer a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year, which caused two HIATUS to be held this year. After successfully opening early 2021 with the implementation of HIATUS in the first online format, then last March, HIATUS closed 2021 with a second online event, which ended with the highlight of the event on Saturday-Sunday (4-5/12).
Prior to the culmination of the event, the fourth of HIATUS UGM had held several series of events from early September to last November, including open submissions and Meraki Talks via Instagram Live. With the theme “Humanity Laid Bare” at this year’s HIATUS, the works presented on the peak day of the event—whether in the form of works of art, literature, performances, or films—were selected by the four HIATUS curators based on the essence of human values presented.
This curatorial process also resulted in an online exhibition of 25 works of art and eight poems that can be accessed from Saturday (4/12) through the official HIATUS website. The highlight of the event was also enlivened by the appearance of several musicians: Gabriela Fernandez, Juan, HiTunes, Impromptu, DIRA, Lourentia Kinkin, and LOR; complete with poetry musical performances from Iyya, Faiz Kampang, and Anggi MW which can be watched live on the YouTube channel of HIATUS.
Not to be missed, HIATUS also held screenings for seven films at the peak event which could only be accessed through BICARA EVENT. Three of the seven films━Gimbal, Minor, and Diary of Cattle━aired on the first day after the series ended, and closed with a discussion with Faisal Ilyas to discuss the topic “Modernity: To Reject or To Embrace?”. Meanwhile, four other films━Memoria, Bride, Kitorang Basudara, and Kiwa━ were screened before the show on the second day, which was bridged by a discussion on “Positioning Our Perspective” with Rizki Fahrizalmi.
All works of art and literature in the HIATUS art exhibition can still be accessed via https://www.hiatusugm.com/. Through the same site, replays of the closing of the peak event can be watched, while the opening is available through the https://bicaraevent.id/hiatus page. HIATUS also provides a humanitarian themed playlist that can be accessed via bit.ly/HIATUS4Playlist and a short web series that can be watched on the Instagram account of HIATUS (@hiatusugm).