Bringing together artists and creatives from across Borneo, the inaugural MYYLA Living Arts UnConference & Festival made its successful debut with many attendees praising the event and looking forward to future theme of “Aspiration”, the ‘UnConference’ format was introduced to enable group up, community and artist-led conversation and took place at various food and beverage establishments across Miri’s city centre.
In the spirit of Borneo’s indigenous communities, each outlet was designated as a village or longhouse, where an invited artist moderator served as the Tuai Rumah or the village head. This year’s Tuai Rumah were visual artist Harold EGn Eswar from Sabah; author and filmmaker, Claudia Liberani from Kalimantan, Indonesia; multidisciplinary artist Elroy Ramantan from Brunei, and Adrian Jo Milang, Kayan cultural practitioner and Community Manager from Sarawak.
“Unlike the traditional conference format, we want to lower that barrier for both the artist and the general public. What is more important is the experience and discourse — particularly around the creative work created in Borneo, for meetings to happen or just in listening to each other’s aspirations,” explained Juvita Tatan Wan, executive producer of MYY Living Arts and co-founder of The Tuyang Initiative. The combination of a community-led approach seems to have found positive footing, with crowds filling up whole cafes to enjoy the liveliness of the day’s programmes.
