Short Bio
Taufik Darwis is a curator, dramaturg, facilitator, and performing artist based in Bandung. He is a founding member of BPAF and a member of the Dramaturgy Assembly. Darwis is interested in developing experimental and collaborative research practices, public programs, and projects focusing on spatial politics, the ecology of everyday life, and connections, communalism, and relationships as regenerative sources of creativity.
For Darwis, working within the performing arts is not just about achievement, but about confronting generative challenges that open up possibilities for learning together, engaging in difficult conversations, facing oneself, and overcoming discomfort collectively.
His projects and collaborations with artists from various techniques and disciplines, communities, initiatives, and institutions are efforts to present, question, rewrite, remix, and reallocate power, as well as to form a field of forces that, in his view, can direct shared feelings and desires to demand what seems most unlikely.
Darwis began his education in Theater Directing at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Bandung and later pursued (but did not complete) studies in Religious Studies and Culture at Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. He continued his graduate studies and ultimately completed his degree in Urban Arts and Creative Industries at the Jakarta Arts Institute.
From 2016-to 2019, he was once a co-curator of the Indonesian Dance Festival for Kampana's Program. In 2018-2019, Taufik was invited as a guest curator Cabaret Chairil program (A transit and development platform for experimental works) at Garasi Performance Institute.
In 2018, Taufik was selected as a participant of The Curators Academy, TheatreWorks Singapore, TPAM – Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama, and Symposium Asian Dramaturg's Network. And September 2018, through the "US / NOT US" Project with BPAF, he was involved in Asian Dramaturgs Network Laboratory in Yogyakarta. He was selected and engaged in the Next Generation Producing Performing Arts 2018, Asia Center, Japan Foundation in the same year. In 2019, he was one of the interviewees in the Asia Hundreds project, Japan Foundation Asia Center. And was selected to conduct a research residency as an Art Manager for over one month in Tokyo and Kyoto on Visiting Fellows 2019 Program, The Saison Foundation, Japan.
In 2020, He was awarded a grant to work on his podcast project "Toward an Ordinary Day" by 'Art + Activism," Center for Applied Human Rights, University of York. He is currently involved in the FREE-Lances (inter-Asian) by BMLab, supported by the Japan Foundation Manila, a multi-lingual online publication project investigating precarious persona in the arts and culture community. His last project, the textile installation performance, "Lusi Pakan Sumbi: Failure De Couture," received funding from the Indonesian Government for Education and Culture.
Then, in 2021, he was selected as one of the participants in Asian Connection: Producer Camp, NTCH (National Theater & Concert Hall, Taiwan).
In 2023, Darwis has worked as a curator,
for the Indonesia Dramatic Reading Festival, and the Laku Hidup curation in the 2023 National Cultural Week.
Education
2005-2011, Bachelor's Degree in Theater Directing Studies, Indonesian College of the Arts, Bandung.
2013- Not completed, Religion and Cultural Studies, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta.
2021-2023, Graduate School Urban Arts, Creative Industries, Jakarta Institute of the
Dramaturgy/Directing
2023, “Sambang Setangga: Kalipasir”, Jicon (Jakarta International Contemporary Dance Festival), Dance Committee, Jakarta Arts Council. Directing.
2023, “Konferensi Kampung Kota” & “Saran Pandang: Imajinasi dan Hantu Penggusuran, Bandung. Directing
2023, "Nganteuran", performative culinary art project, Tilik Salira. Dramaturg.
2022, “Performing Spiral” by Josh Marcy, Musim Semi Salihara. Dramaturg/Artistic collaborator.
2021, “Lapah Ningek: Remembering Remember” a dance film, Tubaba Art Festival, Tulang Bawang Barat, Sumatra, Indonesia. Dramaturg.
2020, "Lusi Pakan Sumbi: Failure De Couture" (textile installation performance), Lawangwangi Creative Space. Director.
2020, "Towards an Ordinary Day," a podcast story project, Art + Activism, Center for Applied Human Rights, University of York, London. Director.
2019, "Once Upon A Time (Chapter 1): The Fallen Boat," a collaboration project of The BPAF x Theatre Muibo (Tokyo), Nuart Sculpture Park, Bandung. Dramaturg.
2018, "Us/Not Us" (work in progress presentation), Asian Dramaturg's Network Laboratory, Yogyakarta. Dramaturg.
2018, "Pasar Tari 2500" (Dance Market 25K), Nuart Sculpture Park, Bandung. Dramaturg.
2017, "Ruwat Telinga" (music performance), Jakarta Arts Council. Dramaturg
2017, "Membeli Ingatan"/" Buying the Memories." Bandung-Jakarta, Director.
2017, “Malam Minggu Metal” (collaborations project). Spasial, Bandung. Dramaturg.
2016, "To The Tit" (collaborations project), opening performance in "Transition" Jakarta Teater Festival. Dramaturg.
2016, "Outside of The Outside," Concert Hall, Cultural Development Center, Yogyakarta. Dramaturg.
2016, “Cut Off: to See, See Oneself, to be Seen,” Amphitheater, Selasar Sunaryo Arts Space, Bandung. Dramaturg.
Curator
2023, Indonesia Dramatic Reading Festival 2023, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology Republic of Indonesia.
2023, “Laku Hidup” Curatorial Team, Pekan Kebudayaan Nasional (National Culture Week) 2023.
2018 – 2019, "Cabaret Chairil" program, Teater Garasi/ Garasi Performance Institute.
2018, Co-Curators, "Nubun Tawa Festival" AntarRagam (Performing Differences) Program, Collaboration Teater Garasi with The Government of East Flores, Lewolema, East Flores.
2017, Jakarta Theatre Festival - Eastern Region.
2016 – 2019, Showcase and Kampana program, Indonesian Dance Festival.
Training/Workshop
2018, Asian Dramaturg’s Network Laboratory, Yogyakarta.
2018, The Curators Academy, TheatreWorks, Singapore.
2017, The History of Performances and Performance History, Dramaturgy Assembly, Teater Garasi, Yogyakarta.
2016, Body and Words in the Work of Directing with Toshiki Okada, Art Summit Indonesia, Selasar Sunaryo Arts Space, Bandung.
2016, Dramaturgy and New Dramaturgy with Peter Eckersall and Ugoran Prasad, Art Summit Indonesia, Kinosaurus and Dia.Lo.Gue, Jakarta.
Publication
2021, "How to Become a Freelancer in Contemporary Performing Arts," the FREE-Lances (inter-Asian), a multi-lingual online publication project, BM Lab & Japan Foundation Manila.
2019, "Is It Important to Have a Question? Is There an Indonesian Ballet?" Jakarta Arts Council Dance Committee.
2019, An essay "A Conversations in Minor Spaces," in the book "Radio 1/2 Radio", Anthology of Rawayan Drama Text 2019, Theatre Committee of the Jakarta Arts Council.
2019, "To Be Aware of The Context and Imagine the Agenda" A recap experience as a participant in The Next Generation, Producing Performing Arts 2018.
2018, "Gazing on the Flow of Mobility and Immobility," a report from TPAM Yokohama. https://www.bpaf.site/2018/03/21/menataparus-perpindahan-dan-kediaman-laporan-dari-tpam-2018/.
2017, "Body, Association, and Manifestation of The Space" (essay), Sasikirana Dance/Choreo-Lab presentation, Sarasvati Magazine.
2017, "Working with The Space" (essay), Inter-Media Program, Theatre Committee of the Jakarta Arts Council.
2017, "The Next Body" (essay), Posthaste-Teater Payung Hitam, Jakarta Theatre Platform, Theater Committee of the Jakarta Arts Council.
2013, "Searching for Indonesian Modern Theatre Asrul Sani's Version: A Postcolonial Research," the Journal of Panggung, Journal of Arts & Culture Journal, Indonesian Art and Culture Institute of Bandung.
Speaker/Invited facilitator of the workshop
2020, Rethinking Curatorial Work, An Online Talk for the Curatorial Development Workshop series presented by The Japan Foundation, Manila (JFM), the Philippine Contemporary Art Network (PCAN), and the University of the Philippines Vargas Museum.
2020, "Agenda dan Agensi Kurasi" (The Agenda and Agency of Curatorial Works) curatorial workshop, Jakarta Dance Meet Up, Dance Committee of the Jakarta Arts Council
2020, Kenapa Perlu Manggung Lagi? Public Discussion "Kapan Manggung Lagi?", Theater Committee of the Jakarta Arts Council.2019,
"The Sketch of Experimentation Practices from the Latest Generation of Performing Arts in Japan," IKJ Postgraduate Public Lecture.
2019, Open Up the Spectrum, Talk Event, Visiting Fellows 2019, Morishita Studio, The Saison Foundation (Japan).
2018, "Dramaturgy as A Shift in The Disclosure of Political Position in City Citizenship," Symposium Asian Dramaturg's Network Laboratory, Yogyakarta.
2018, "The Dramaturgical Tension Between Being an Artist and a Citizen," Symposium Asian Dramaturg's Network: Dramaturgy and The Political, TPAM: Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama, Japan.
2017, as a facilitator in Focus Group Discussion, pre-Temu Teater Indonesia (Indonesian Theater Meeting), Yogyakarta.
2017, “Creating Indonesian Modern Dance Identity: A Case Study of ‘Meta-Ekologi’ Sardono W. Kusumo”, 1979, Dance/Choreography Workshop, Akademi Indonesian Dance Festival, Kampana’s Program, Gunung Kidul Yogyakarta.
2017, "Searching for Indonesian Modern Theater Asrul Sani's Version" and "The History of The Audience and The Crowds at Bandung," Dramaturgy Assembly on The History of Performances and Performance History, Teater Garasi, Yogyakarta.