Conversations | Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre Show Tune

Organised in collaboration with Audemars Piguet Contemporary

The work of artist Natasha Tontey (B. 1989) seeks to blur the lines between reality and imagination. Timed to her new exhibition ‘Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre’ now on view at Museum MACAN (Jakarta), Tontey staged a singular performance at Art Basel Hong Kong, integrating text, music, costume from the film. ‘Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre’ explores the relationship between the native population of macaque monkeys, or yaki, and the indigenous people of South Minahasa presenting a fictional environment that interrogates the symbiotic relationship between living beings. The work has been commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary, with the in-house curatorial team working closely with Tontey and Museum MACAN to develop and realise this project.

Performance by Natasha Tontey

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). 

The Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 Conversations program is curated by Stephanie Bailey.
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