;JP;EDI SEDYAWATI;
\nANPAc..r..
\nYearend-performing arts
\nJP\/18\/EDI<\/p>\n
Performing arts: Art Summit and beyond<\/p>\n
===============
\nEdi Sedyawati
\nFormer Director
\nGeneral of Culture
\nJakarta
\n---------------<\/p>\n
In the year 2001, the most significant event in performing
\narts here, at least from its many dimensions, was the Third Art
\nSummit Indonesia: Performing Arts. This international festival of
\ncontemporary art took place for a whole month, from Aug. 27 to
\nSept. 27.<\/p>\n
Seventeen selected works in dance, music and theater were
\nperformed for two days each, either at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta or
\nGraha Bhakti Budaya, Taman Ismail Marzuki. The groups
\nparticipating in the festival were from Australia, China, Egypt,
\nGermany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands
\nand the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
In most cases, the general rehearsals were also open to
\nselected groups, that is, the press and secondary school
\nstudents.<\/p>\n
A general assessment of the event would lead us to conclude
\nthat interest in contemporary performing arts among the
\nIndonesian public is still divided. For dance and theater the
\ninterest is great, as demonstrated by the large attendance at
\ntheaters where they were shown. Contemporary music, however,
\nseems to not be fully appreciated. The problem at hand might be
\nthe segregated worlds of serious music on one side and popular
\nmusic on the other.<\/p>\n
Popular music is a mighty world in itself, which is greatly
\nsupported by its industry through very aggressive promotion
\ncampaigns and the idolization of \"celebrities.\" It is then a
\nchallenge in itself to square, and to bring into balance, the
\nmusical orientation of the Indonesian population at large.<\/p>\n
While enjoying popular music, which is also a platform for
\ncreativity in its own right, people should also be trained to
\nappreciate explorative contemporary music, as well as forms of
\ntraditional music with their unique established esthetics.
\nMusicians themselves are expected to do more \"bridging\" between
\nthe two worlds.<\/p>\n
One dance-theater group, Pappa Tarahumara of Japan, also
\nperformed at Indonesian Art High School (STSI) Surakarta, Central
\nJava, on Aug. 23 through their own arrangement. The STSI
\nSurakarta and the Goethe Institute had also arranged for Folkwang
\nTanztheater of Germany to perform and have workshops in the city
\n(after its performance here on Sept. 27) but it was canceled due
\nto the unfavorable political situation after the Sept. 11 attack
\non New York and Washington.<\/p>\n
As a substitute the German group held a workshop with the
\nKarmawibhangga group of young choreographers, dancers and
\nmusicians near Jakarta. It is indeed expected that the groups
\ninvited to Art Summit Indonesia should also visit other places
\nbesides Jakarta, to perform and do workshops, with the artistic
\ncommunity of each place as host.<\/p>\n
Out of the 17 performances in the Art Summit there were
\nachievements worth special recognition. Some of those are in the
\narea of exploration of the medium, or the instrument; some others
\nare in what could be called the shaping of new symbols; some can
\nbe categorized as \"the flexing of traditions\"; while another
\naspect that may transect the three above categories is that of
\npoetry in movement and sound, as well as technical feats.<\/p>\n
Strange Fruits of Australia explored the free air as a medium
\nfor movements of the dancers who moved on the tips of four-to-
\nfive-meter-high flexible stilts. Despite the extra physical
\ncontrol needed and the limited possibility of movement, the
\ndancers managed to evoke touching feelings with their maneuvers.<\/p>\n
Boi G. Sakti with his group used sand, spread over the stage
\nfloor, as a characterizing base for the dancers' movements.
\nMoreover he used many more ingenuous staging techniques; sand
\npoured from above so as to form a shield-like image, a row of
\nsmall flames in the background and small dry leaves scattering in
\nthe air.<\/p>\n
That set supported the unyielding dynamics of his
\nchoreographic composition including the very tiny and delicate,
\nas well as the very fast and strong movements. All these
\nelements, integrated with the music composition and costume
\ndesign, framed in scenes referring to the toiling of land, are at
\nthe same time a work of symbol formation.<\/p>\n
Another work that plays on poetry and symbol formation is the
\ntheater piece Presiden Burung-burung, written and directed by N.
\nRiantiarno. It has been incorrectly perceived as a political
\nmessage. Although the work did allude to some political figures
\nand incidents in Indonesia, this was used as a mere background
\nfor an interpretation of human entanglements, a philosophical
\nmusing on the essence of power. This work was supported by the
\nvisual design of the grandiose but disjunctive figure of Rahwana.<\/p>\n
Another line of symbol making was the work by the
\nchoreographer Henrietta Horn of Germany. It was more of a non-
\nthematic \"figures of expression\". Superb precision, surprises in
\na sequence of movements, exaggerated movements, as well as the
\ntypical shaking and the use of chairs as the expansion of the
\ndancing figures, were among the elements that in an integrated
\nform created symbolic reverberations of human loneliness.<\/p>\n
The flexing of traditions can be found among others in the
\nworks of composers A. L. Suwardi of Indonesia and Yuji Takahashi
\nof Japan, and choreographer Akram Khan of United Kingdom. Among
\nthem Suwardi was the most extreme, since he also constructed new,
\nunique, musical instruments for his compositions.<\/p>\n
His music sounds like traditional music but in reality he uses
\nnewly generated sounds, and is composed in an original way.
\nTechnical feats, both in sound and movement production and
\njuxtaposition abound in the many works presented during Art
\nSummit.<\/p>\n
Several festivals of the more popular genres especially in
\nmusic were also organized, such as the Jak Art and the Percussion
\nFestival. They were quite successful in drawing audiences.<\/p>\n
A special type of performance that has gained more popularity
\nin 2001 is the humorous version of the Javanese traditional
\ngenres of performances. Television stations appear to compete to
\nbroadcast the best. Both the ketoprak and wayang wong humoristic
\nversions have dialog in Indonesian with occasional lines in
\nJavanese subtitled in Indonesian.<\/p>\n
Both also have used the same strategy of inviting well known
\ncelebrities among film or TV drama series to take the leading
\nroles.<\/p>\n
Those performances, of different groups, are all well
\nsupported by newly designed costumes. The popularity of those
\nperformances is, however, coming to a halt.<\/p>\n
Questions can be raised, as to: first, whether the competition
\nfor more refinement, especially in the quality of the humor
\nitself, is now needed; second, whether explorations should also
\nbe made to adapt in the same way other forms of traditional
\nperformances, not only those originating from Java; third,
\nwhether a more serious, not the humoristic kind of adaptation
\ninto Indonesian is also needed; and finally, whether full fledged
\ntraditional presentations with Indonesian subtitles are needed.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jpedi-sedyawati-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}