Art at intersection between trauma, amnesia<\/p>\n
Farah Wardani, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
There was a moment when everyone was furious. Everyone was
\ninvolved in the pandemonium of a sudden explosion of anger that
\nwas taken as a form of \"freedom\", just like a release of a sneeze
\nthat keeps tempting and finally comes.<\/p>\n
That moment was actually only between three and four years
\nago, when the Reformation era began in Indonesia. It was the
\nperiod of political euphoria with its boom of freedom of speech,
\nmass media, demonstrations and political activism, where
\neverybody joined the celebration of \"the end of repression\".<\/p>\n
Now, however, that moment seems like eons away. It is
\nremarkable too see how so many events have been happening in
\nIndonesia within only a couple of years, which are impossible to
\nmention here one by one. Great things have happened, such as the
\nreplacement of dictator for instance, although many things have
\nremained the same, like political uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Everyone seems to have gotten tired of talking about politics.
\nThe euphoria has been fading out slowly but surely, and the
\ntrauma appears to be getting replaced by amnesia. It is not a new
\nstory for Indonesians, as their collective history seems always
\nto be a vicious circle.<\/p>\n
The issue of amnesia raises some questions such as: Can it
\nbring the people down to an apathetic state of mind by again
\nsubmitting to a situation of oppression, or could it be something
\nmore enlightening rather than always trying to look back at the
\npast? Can time really heal all the wounds or does it just merely
\nhide them, just as numerous legal cases have been closed without
\njust solutions?<\/p>\n
The questions remain rhetorical. Meanwhile, back to three
\nyears ago, probably there were still many who might feel an
\nintense feeling of terror and anger when they went through such
\nexperiences like these: seeing a woman brutally butcher a chicken
\nwhile screaming, \"Aceh! Ambon! East Timor!\", laying down on a cot
\ninside a military tent \"decorated\" by B-movie posters, or seeing
\na giant banner that looked like the one commonly used for Golkar
\nParty propaganda - with New Order images on it and a big slogan
\nwhich says, \"Visit Indonesia Years\".<\/p>\n
The scenes illustrated above are artwork from three Indonesian
\ncontemporary artists (Hell Comes to Paradise by Arahmaiani,
\nPressure & Pleasure by Agus Suwage, and Visit Indonesia Years,
\nTisna Sanjaya), among 14 artists who took part in Awas! Recent
\nArt From Indonesia at Bentara Budaya, Jakarta.<\/p>\n
It is a traveling exhibition which has been held since 1999,
\ndue to the great efforts of the Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta. The
\nshow is the last of its series of exhibitions that has been made
\na voyage to three continents: Asia, Australia and Europe.<\/p>\n
The first one was in Yogyakarta at Benteng Vredeburg Museum on
\nOct. 11, 1999, then moved to several cities in Japan, the
\nNetherlands, Germany and Australia, until it finally comes home
\nat this present time to Indonesia - as shown in the title of the
\nclosing exhibition catalog, Mudik (Coming home).<\/p>\n
Determining the \"contemporary-ness\" of its platform, the
\nexhibition shows artwork which are mostly in the form of mixed
\nmedia installations.<\/p>\n
Even though not all of them contain direct political content,
\nAwas! is very political in a general sense. The word \"Awas\"
\nitself in Indonesian means \"beware\". It is meant as a warning, a
\ndisplay in a large scale of the euphoria of terror, fury, irony
\nand chaos that emerged in Indonesia in the post-New Order era,
\nthe time when everyone wanted to say everything after long
\ndecades of silence.<\/p>\n
There are so many issues raised here that can be seen through
\nthe messages of the artists' works: repression of the previous
\nregime, military violence, feminism, history, cultural
\nimperialism, social restraints, exoticism, hegemony of the West
\nand so on. It posits itself both as a representation of Indonesia
\nthrough art, and also as a critique of the representation itself.<\/p>\n
One of the most interesting points of this exhibition is that
\nit plays around with \"the art of politics\" and \"the politics of
\nart\".<\/p>\n
Some pieces, such as Under Estimate (Apotik Komik) and
\nSouvenirs from the Third World (Agung Kurniawan) directly
\ncriticize artists who seem to be seizing on political events to
\nget international recognition. The fact that these pieces have
\ntraveled to foreign lands and been seen by international
\naudiences (as well as getting international recognition along the
\nway) adds more to the ironic nature of it all.<\/p>\n
The exhibition has traveled a long way, and now that it has
\nfinally come home, what more can it possibly say? Perhaps it is
\nno longer useful to try to appreciate the art as a whole by
\nsticking to the curatorial parameters in the context of 1999, but
\nbetter to experience them as individual works that speak for
\nthemselves.<\/p>\n
Some of them are still quite reflective in offering a
\ncontemplation on identity and social construction, such as the
\nstone hair buns sculptures in Portrait of a Javanese Man by
\nNindityo Adipurnomo and the parody of female beauty in The Beauty
\nMyth by Bunga Jeruk.<\/p>\n
Last but not least, the return of Awas! makes us rethink to
\nwhat extent art can take part in enhancing a social movement,
\nwhether it is possible to do so or just merely stands as a
\nrepresentation.<\/p>\n
The best thing that we probably could get from such
\nexhibitions as Awas! is recalling the questions of the problems
\nin our surroundings that remain unanswered. Awas! is no longer
\n`beware!', it turns mildly into \"watch out\" (another Indonesian
\ndefinition).<\/p>\n
It may not work strongly as a warning like before, with its
\ndisplaced position on the intersection between trauma and
\namnesia. Nevertheless, it still manages to stand out as a
\nreminder, reminding us that once upon a time in Indonesia, we
\nwere angry, yet somehow were also \"free\".
\n-- Awas! in Bentara Budaya, Jl. Palmerah Selatan No. 17, Central
\nJakarta runs until Oct. 13, 2002. Tel. 5483008. Open daily from
\n10 a.m. through 6 p.m.<\/p>",
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