New Pessimism, the title of Natasha Tontey and Riar Rizaldi’s film production company, is a state of mind. Inspired by cinema, popular culture, and histories of social change and Indigenous movements in Indonesia, New Pessimism holds ground for unbridled, campy complexity: an aesthetic of refusal. In this panel, Tontey and Rizaldi explored what New Pessimism can teach us about navigating the present.
Natasha Tontey, artist
Riar Rizaldi, artist and filmmaker
Moderated by Joseph Chen, Director of Culture, Eaton HK
Natasha Tontey is a Minahasan artist based between Jakarta and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Her artistic practice predominantly explores the fictional accounts of the history and myths surrounding ‘manufactured fear.’ In her practice, she observes any possibilities of other futures that are projected not from the perspective of major and established institutions, but from the subtle and personal struggle of outcast entities and beings. Recent exhibitions include ‘Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre’ (2024) at Museum MACAN, Jakarta, commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary and ‘Garden Amidst the Flame’ (2022) at Auto Italia, London. She has presented her work at major events including the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and GHOST:2565, Bangkok. In 2020, she received the HASH Award from the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and Akademie Schloss Solitude. She was a fellow for the Human Machine program at the Junge Akademie of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2021–2023).
Riar Rizaldi works as an artist and filmmaker. His works have been shown at Museum of Modern Art, New York (2024), Whitney Biennial (2024), Taipei Biennial (2023), Istanbul Biennial (2023), Biennale Jogja (2021), National Gallery of Indonesia (2019), and other venues and institutions. Recent solo exhibitions and programs of his works have been held at Gasworks, London (2024), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2024), Z33, Hasselt (2024), Centre de la photographie Genève (2023), and Batalha Centro de Cinema, Porto (2023), among others.
Joseph Chen King Yuen is an artist and curator based in Hong Kong. He is currently the director of culture at Eaton HK, a purpose-driven hospitality company, where he curates social and cultural initiatives and builds community among artists, changemakers, and marginalized groups. His curatorial and artistic practices address themes of gender and sexuality, subculture, mythology, and technology, focusing on visual arts, moving images, and performance. Additionally, he is the cofounder of Virtue Village, an art initiative that creates and curates works connecting humans to spirituality and intimacy while exploring themes of Queer culture, fetishism, and posthumanism. He is the curator of the exhibition and program for the booth of Tomorrow Maybe (the contemporary art gallery at Eaton HK) in the Cultural Partner sector of Art Basel Hong Kong 2025.
The Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 Conversations program is curated by Stephanie Bailey.
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