Arte Moris

Arte Moris, which means ‘living art’, is the first ever fine art school in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. The school was recently described by the President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Dr Jose Ramos-Horta, as “one of the most successful youth projects in Timor-Leste, Arte Moris provides talented children and young people a direct means to creative exploration of their world – their unique history and heritage, their personal experiences, and their dreams for the future”.

Arte Moris was founded in 2003 by Luca and Gabriela Gansser, and a group of talented young Timorese who became it’s first students. The original students have now become a core group of 20 artists who live and work on site. They have assumed full responsibility for running the school, including teaching younger students for free.

After 400 years of colonization by Portugal, Timor-Leste suffered a brutal invasion and 24 years of vicious military occupation by the Indonesian State, which was opposed by many Indonesians, particularly those in the student and labour movements. And, of course, the occupation was courageously resisted by literally tens of thousands of Timorese from all walks of life, who finally won their independence in 1999.

Despite almost 80% of Timorese voting for independence in UN sponsored referendum in 1999, the Indonesian army and their militias conducted a campaign of murders and bombings that destroyed the country’s infrastructure and was only halted with the intervention of an Australian-led UN peace-keeping force. Ten years on, while still one of the world’s poorest nations, Timor-Leste is emerging from the ashes to become what it once was, a spectacularly beautiful country with a generous and courageous people.

This is the first photo-design project at Arte Moris, and most participants’ first experience of using the internet for peer-to-peer art conversations. We will be absolutely thrilled to receive any comments from you about our work. We thank you in advance!

© Individual artists, 2006-2011. All images in this portfolio presentation are copyrighted and owned by the individual artists. They do not belong to the public domain. Any reproduction, modification, publication, transmission, transfer or exploitation of any of the content for personal or commercial use, whether in whole or in part, beyond the permission granted herein, without prior written permission from the artist, is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.