Slamet Gundono is one of the finest and most innovative puppeteers of his generation. On the forefront of Java's dynamic performance scene, Gundono's work is some of the most meaningful, provocative, original theatre today.
Gundono is a multi-disciplinary artist who draws on the long traditions of Javanese and Indonesian culture so as to reinvent and innovate within the field of interactive shadow puppetry. Gundono collaborates with artists from other disciplines, and incorporates story telling, dance, film and multi-media. He also runs workshops to encourage experimentation.
Gundono has developed a form of puppetry that involves clay, vegetables, sleep talking, water and condoms. By using humour and satire in a non-confrontational way, he lends a voice to the socially marginalised and is popular with a widely based audience. Through his work he investigates social issues such as gender, exploitation, religious orthodoxy and damage to the environment. Gundono uses local idioms and simple means, and demonstrates that traditional cultural forms can be powerful vehicles for contemporary expression.
Gundono was born in Tegal, Central Java, to a family of dhalang artists (puppet shadow masters). Both, his father, Ki Suwati and his brother, Ki Gunawan Suwati are classical dhalangs. Gundono trained in theatre at the Jakarta Institute of Arts and at the Indonesia College of Arts, (STSI) Surakarta. Gundono has been strongly influenced by the wayang style of the late of Ki Narto Sabdo, who had a deeply spiritual approach to wayang kulit.
He has taken part in productions such as Opera Diponegoro, a dance-theatre choreographed by Sardono W. Kusumo performed in Jakarta in 1995 and in Solo and Semarang in 2001, and Passage Through The Gong by Sardono, performed in Surakarta and Japan. He has collaborated with Mugiyono (choreographer) and Dedek Wahyudi (composer) for the Chan Mu International Festival 1995 in Seoul and the Indonesia Dance Festival 1996 in Jakarta, and with the South Bank Gamelan, London, England. Other works include performing wayang at the WOMAD festival in Reading and at the Royal Festival Hall, London in 1997 during the CIPA (Contemporary Indonesian Performing Arts) tour of England. He also starred in the 2006 Indonesian/Austrian co-production film Opera Jawa.
In 2004, Gundono was a fellow in UCLA's Asia Pacific Performance Exchange (APPEX) and in 2005, received the Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands (an award that is presented annually to artists, thinkers and cultural organisations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean for work of outstanding quality that has a positive effect on a wider cultural or social field).
Text sources:
http://www.princeclausfund.org/en/what_we_do/awards/2005SLametGundono.shtml and http://www.wac.ucla.edu/cip/appex/2004/index.html
He has taken part in productions such as Opera Diponegoro, a dance-theatre choreographed by Sardono W. Kusumo performed in Jakarta in 1995 and in Solo and Semarang in 2001, and Passage Through The Gong by Sardono, performed in Surakarta and Japan. He has collaborated with Mugiyono (choreographer) and Dedek Wahyudi (composer) for the Chan Mu International Festival 1995 in Seoul and the Indonesia Dance Festival 1996 in Jakarta, and with the South Bank Gamelan, London, England. Other works include performing wayang at the WOMAD festival in Reading and at the Royal Festival Hall, London in 1997 during the CIPA (Contemporary Indonesian Performing Arts) tour of England. He also starred in the 2006 Indonesian/Austrian co-production film Opera Jawa.