Visual Art Exhibition: How Are You, Meneer ?

Participants of this exhibition are artists that may be grouped into three generations. The oldest generation comprises artists who have gone through a number of phases, namely the Indonesian revolution era, the Old Order, the New Order, and the present era. The second group consists of artists who have been educated during the beginning to the end of the New Order period. The last group are young artists who have just been graduated from or still studying at art academies.

This exhibition does not highlight the quality of art creation but tries to present the “samples” of cultural products. The principal question is: How the ideas of cultural relations are unconsciously revealed in the form of cultural objects consumed by people in their daily lives?

This exhibition entitled “How are You, Meneer?” is the same as other art exhibitions, including the providing of thematic idea to the invited artists. The difference is only in the matter of displaying the date of birth of each artist in addition to other usual information such as title, materials, and the size of each artwork. The mentioning of the dates of birth means to underline the time of cultural interactions and the reception of experiences in order to show the signs referring to relations among cultural producers.

One of the artist participant, which is also most senior artist in this exhibition is Maryono, a glass painter who lives in Muntilan, 30 kilometres to the north of Yogyakarta. When we visited his simple house, he told that in the time of Clash II Maryono had been 13 years old. He told us about the armed conflict in Muntilan, the “read beaks” (mustang aircrafts) were roaring in the sky, and besides the violent combat, there were rapes. The consequence of the rapes, among others, was that he subsequently had a neighbour who was often called as “sinyo” (the nickname given by Javanese to the Dutchmen or half-breed people). “A Dutchman who likes tiwul,” said Maryono. (Tiwul is Javanese food made of cassava that looks like rice and consumed as a cheaper substitute for rice). Now “ndoro sinyo” (master sinyo) works as a labourer at a cigarette manufacture.

As a society who tends to be forgetful, this exhibition would likely to be significant as it touches the forbidden areas exist in the Indonesian (or Javanese) minds concerning the originality of their identities that are apparent from their own signification as the “natives”. How about the East Timorese when presently they already achieved their independence? Who are they? What categories appropriate to them? Where is our position, the Indonesians who see ourselves as modern and intelligent? Since the policy of regional autonomy was implemented, Indonesia consists of 32 provinces. Hence, are the “peaks of national culture” not only 27 anymore? Would be there any project that tries to redesign the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah Park?

Artists who participate in this exhibition are:

1. Maryono (born: 8 July 1938)
2. Alfi Jumaidi (born: 19 July 1973)
3. Galam Zulkifli (born: 14 January 1971)
4. Tita Rubi (born: 15 December 1968)
5. Wimo Ambala Bayang (born: 14 October 1976)
6. RM. Soni Irawan (born: 15 January 1975)
 

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Film Shows: De Stille Kracht

Six films presented during this event are one of the attempts to see, record, and frame the Indies. Indies, which initially deals with the problems of race, is eventually also seen as a life style as well as cultural amalgamation. If, in this context, Indies is considered as something exists in Indonesia, this is only based on our attention to our own case: we live and exist in Indonesia.

Then, who are Indies?

Thematically, we choose a film produced by Dutch cineaste that presents romantic attitude of the Dutch to Indonesia in the colonial era and after. Films by Indonesian cineastes are those made in the current era that we consider are the reflection of ideological views of Indonesian film directors (mostly are Javanese) toward the realities of life of other Indonesian people outside Java. Are there differences (or even similarities) of viewpoints between both sides towards the objects and (social) phenomena as recorded in these films?

Short Story Shows: Chalie a Batavian Boy

“Chalie, a Batavian Boy” is an essay published in a book entitled Bianglala Sastra that deals with Chalie Robinson or Vincent Mahieu or Jaan Boon. Vincent Mahieu collected his short stories written with setting or background that shows Indonesia in the time towards the proclamation of Indonesia’s Independence. The first collection of his short stories, entitled CIS, takes Batavia as its setting and describes everyday conflicts of an Indies family. The second collection is CUK. This collection is more characterised by an atmosphere of armed conflict between the Dutch and Indonesians and takes its setting from the cities in East Java. Both collections are translated by HB Jassin and published by Djambatan. In this project, the stories by Vincent Mahieu collected in CIS and CUK will be performed on the stage, completed with a short story by Seno Gumira Ajidarma.

Three short stories by Chalie that presented are Dasi , Pagar , Vivere Pericolosamente, and completed with a short story by Seno Gumira Ajidarma titled Jakarta 1998

These four stories were played on the stage in four styles of performance. Ibnu Gundul—student at the Department of Theatre, Indonesian Institute of Art—played “Pagar” by reading the story, accompanied by music played by three musicians. The preference to present the old days on the stage could be indicated from the style of speaking shown by Adi Marsono who previously had tried hard to find Dutch songs he would use as the back-sound of his play. Adi presented his performance with a style that we may call story telling style. Adi read a story “Vivere Pericolosomante”. Unlike Ibnu and Adi, Wiro—student of a bank academy of Yogyakarta—presented his performance by reading Seno Gumira’s short story, Jakarta 1998 without text. He transformed the acts in shadow puppet show into dances that refer to the dances in wayang orang show (stage show played by human of which stories are the same as those of shadow puppet show). His performance style, moved between text and daily realties, created humorous atmosphere. The stage performance of Theater Alto that played “Dasi” completed the Monoplay programme. The play of Theater Alto which was based on this short story presented each sequel of the story as a series of acts on the stage. T

Enjoying the dramatisation of the short stories, we felt like travelling into the spaces of creativity of the artists.

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Seminar

Opening Up The Indies Culture Suitcase:

From Anyer To Panarukan to Sabang To Merauke

Besides going deep into our memories, this discussion aims to self-formulate our own face, which may seem arrogant and full of patches. What kind of risk do we bear from the Creole identity symptom when it appears in the framework of art?

The aesthetic ideas which take form of low art and high art, would it develop from the colonialism thinking? How then, does contemporary art free itself from the colonial intention-when it is needed? Can the democratization of aesthetics keep aesthetic from losing itself?

This discussion bring two young thinkers who were born in the creole generation. They were Nuraini Juliastuti, one of KUNCI Cultural Studies Center exponent, and Primanto Nugroho, an activist of Nandan Institute of Art Studies (NIAS), who is also a media and conflicts critic.

Nuraini Juliastuti, a.ka. Nuning, reviews the postcolonial phenomenon in relation to the history of Indo. She trying to enter the Indo discourse in term of the organic hybridity - generated by interracial marriage, with all its excess to contemporary Indonesian  daily life, through Mass media reviews on the stars, celebrities, entertainment world, television. She believe that those components mentioned above are important topics in Indonesian contemporary culture. In another term, Indo as non organic hibridity, namely the mix between the different concepts of culture, is reviewed through the case of languages-mixed  which has debated between activists in  Indonesian independency movement era, until a phenomenon of common sense live in Indonesian Indonesian cosmopolite

The stars, celebrities, entertainment world, television are important topics in Indonesian contemporary culture and hence it would be relevant to give attention to this postcolonial phenomenon in relation to the history of Indo.
the organic hybridity generated by interracial marriage. Now let’s turn to non-organic one, namely the mix between the different concepts of culture. Idea that cultural identity is continually changing has brought us to an insight that culture and identity are like a melting pot in which different cultures and identity meet and mix together.
Issues concerning the use of Dutch vs. Malay have been dealt with during the era of Indonesian movement, such as the debate between Syarikat Islam and Budi Utomo.
There is a combination between the efforts to gain success in global competition—often simplified as fluency in English—and the hopes to gain honourable social status among local society.
The condition of today’s Indonesian society sliced by global culture has enabled us to mix anything so that we also have opportunity to produce imitations. However, the imitation should not be seen as submission to some culture or anything considered as “Western” often crystallizes in our minds as the “centre”. It may be more adequate if we say that this is an exchange between “centre” and “periphery”. In this context, we may find some awkward imitation, misplaced emulation, anything inappropriate or inconvenient. This is a condition essentially suggesting that being on the outer side does not mean to be pushed aside. Through the awkwardness, the centre is actually tried to be disrupted, put into question, adjusted and utilised in line with necessities.

Nuraini Juliastuti, yang biasa dipanggil Nuning ini mengulas fenomena hubungan wacana indo ini pada masa Indonesia paska-kolonial. Nuning mencoba memasuki wacana indo sebagai hibridasi organik (percampuran antar ras) dengan segala bentuk eksesnya dalam kehidupan sehari-hari pada masyarakat Indonesia  kontemporer melalui kabar-kabar  seputar artis, selebritis, dunia hiburan, panggung televisi yang dimuat media massa. Karena baginya,  komponen-komponen diatas merupakan wacana penting dalam wacana budaya kontemporer Indonesia. Sedangkan perihal hibridasi non-organik - percampuran konsep kebudayaan yang berbeda-beda, ia tampilkan dengan mengulas kasus percampuran bahasa yang sudah menjadi bahan perdebatan diantara aktivis pergerakan kemerdekaan Indonesia, hingga fenomena adanya anggapan masyarakat umum di kota-kota besar (seperti Jakarta) bahwa kemampuan berbahasa Inggris dapat meningkatkan status sosial seseorang.  Lebih jauh lagi, ia membawanya pada persoalan hibridasi budaya yang terjadi  di Indonesia saat ini dengan maraknya peniruan-peniruan maupun adaptasi-adaptasi budaya dari 'barat' yang notabene berasal dari 'luar' Indonesia . Ia mengkritisi cara kita memandang 'pusat' dan 'pinggiran', yang lebih suka disebutnya  sebagai pergantian posisi “pusat” dan “pinggiran”, suatu kondisi yang pada hakekatnya menyiratkan bahwa berada di “pinggiran” tidak selalu berarti terpinggirkan, karena justru dengan segala kejanggalan itulah posisi “pusat” diguncang, dipertanyakan kembali, sekaligus disesuaikan dan dimanfaatkan sesuai kebutuhannya.

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Melalui kaca mata lain, silang sengkarut identitas budaya Indies, Primanto ungkapkan dalam tiga frasa: terbelah, tercabut, terasing. Dengannya, ia mensejajarkan kompleksitas karakter dan konflik yang muncul dalam tokoh

Secara provokatif Primanto mengungkapkan bahwa bahaya bagi setiap karya berpengetahuan dan berkesenian dalam ruang sugestif ialah tanpa sengaja selalu menjadi reaksioner. Dengan kata lain, karya seni bisa terus dibuat –apapun pretensinya, apapun ide dasarnya- namun ketika dilihat dari jarak tertentu segera tampak bahwa segenap pergulatan estetika terjadi di dalam pulau kekayaan di tengah lautan kemiskinan …….

lebih jauh ...

Comments

… the curatorial successfulness of this exhibition should be evaluated in terms of the curator’s capability to categorize certain trends manifested by some other artists. However, if Indies cultural phenomena, in fact, may be represented by every artist—which are also represented in this exhibition—and even by every modern Indonesian, this exhibition seems giving too much emphasis on the label than the contents.
(Raihul Fadjri – Koran Tempo, Monday, 18 October 2004)

As I see it, this exhibition has not tried explicitly to be the representation of the three generations in their attempts to bring about cultural products influenced by Dutch culture. Moreover, in their social interactions, most artists have not yet gone through experiences that deal directly with the West. What appear are their viewpoints in romanticising memories and old stories about the Dutch who once controlled this country so that while the curator expected the arising of Indies culture’s imageries (the Indonesian-Dutch cultural hybrid), one has not yet found something specific in this exhibition. Issues dealing with “Indies” are surely interesting as merely a “gossip” but these have not yet become visible in this exhibition. I can’t help it, Meneer!
(Kuss Indarto – Media Indonesia, Sunday, 3 October 2004)

… I would like to say that the discourse offered by this exhibition—which also carries out a series of film shows and a colloquium about Indies culture—may be more interesting if the curatorial mechanism is well-defined while the curator’s position is more apparent. In my view, this exhibition runs in such a way that it seems to be directed by a curator but, in fact, it is without a curator. In this case, the audience will find it is difficult to identify the mechanism used for selecting artists who actually concern themselves with the discourse brought forward by the curator—even though the curator can usually adjust the discourse so that it seems relevant with the exhibited artworks. Or, does this exhibition mean to see the fish in aquarium?
(Aminuddin TH Siregar – Kompas, Sunday, 10 October 2004)