The word "motif" picked as the title for ARTJOG 2023 has two meanings at once. This term can mean style, pattern, color, layout, even a set of symbols or symbol creation. But motif can also be interpreted as a person's will, drive, reason and purpose to carry out a certain action or practice. That's the second meaning. The second definition of motif is very close to motivation, namely a certain condition, thought or awareness that moves a motif to be executed or practiced in a real way.
ARTJOG 2023 uses the term "motif" for the first meaning. Thus, motif is not the theme of the exhibition offered by ARTJOG to the artists to be interpreted as the usual invitation mechanism. By using the term "motif" as the title of the exhibition, ARTJOG actually wants to present a variety of visual treasures that have been worked on by the artists so far. For this reason, ARTJOG pays attention and wishes to submit a proposal to the artists to exhibit various treasures of motif of their works in this annual art festival. The word “proposal” in the title of this exhibition is ARTJOG's attempt to get closer to exploring various languages of motif and how the artists express them.
Of course, the artistic explorations that have been carried out by the artists so far are not limited to mere visual motif. However, whatever theme—big or small—that artists work on does not mean they have to ignore the search for new motifs in their works. Proposal to artists who have been working on developing certain distinctive visual motifs also does not mean completely ignoring the struggles in developing the theme, the main point or the content. The content of works of art is of course as vast as this world, and the artist's job is to create limitless creative forms or motifs to realize the content and the involvement in that limitless world.
A proposal to the artists is a form of ARTJOG's appreciation for the creative motifs that they have been performing so far.
Nadia Bamadhaj
Hendro Wiyanto