In Conversation: Natasha Tontey with Carly Whitefield and Itha O'Neill
Held during the opening week of The Phantom Combatants and the Metabolism of Disobedient Organs, the artist talk brought Natasha Tontey together with curators Itha O’Neill and Carly Whitefield. The conversation centred on Tontey’s imaginative, research-driven practice and the diverse forms of knowledge that shape her work.
During the conversation, Tontey offered insights into the ideas and methods behind her commission The Phantom Combatants: from her distinctive DIY aesthetic and practices of world-building to her exploration of the body as a site of transformation. Together, Tontey, O’Neill and Whitefield examined how experiences of collective struggle can be translated into artistic forms and how different ways of knowing come together within Tontey’s process. The talk opened up perspectives on resistance, autonomy and the possibility of rethinking established ideas of bodies and self-determination.
Natasha Tontey
Natasha Tontey is a Minahasan artist and researcher based in Jakarta and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Her practice encompasses film and video, performances and installations and often explores alternative futures from the perspectives of marginalised entities. Tontey has exhibited her work at venues internationally, including solo shows at Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (2026); Museum MACAN, Jakarta (2024–25); and Auto Italia, London (2022). She has also shown her work in group exhibitions at venues including the MUNCH Triennale, Oslo (2025–26); 18th İstanbul Biennial (2025); 14th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre (2025); Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul (2022); Singapore Biennale 2022; Ghost 2565, Bangkok (2022); and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2021). Her films have screened at the BFI London Film Festival (2025), FIDMarseille (2025) and the Singapore International Film Festival (2021, 2023, 2025). She is the recipient of the Han Nefkens Foundation — Loop Barcelona Video Art Production Grant 2024, and the HASH Award from ZKM | Karlsruhe and Akademie Schloss-Solitude, Stuttgart in 2020. From 2021 to 2023, Tontey was a fellow of the Human Machine programme at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin. Tontey has been selected for participation in the 59th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh and Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement, Tunis (both 2026).
