Made Wianta's 'Art and Peace' is an offering-cum-mantra<\/p>\n
By Jean Couteau<\/p>\n
DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Since Otto Dix depicted the horrors of
\nwar in the 1920s, artists have long denounced violence in their
\nworks. In Indonesia, artists such as Samsar Siahan and Dadang
\nChristanto have made a career of denouncing the abuses of the New
\nOrder regime. More recently, almost all the entries to the last
\n\"Philip Morris Price Award\" dealt with the themes of oppression
\nand political violence.<\/p>\n
Using art to simply protest against violence is easy, however,
\nbecause the facts are condemnable, and the culprits known. Art
\ntakes side and becomes the tool of a \"good\" political struggle.
\nThere are no intellectual risks. Only applause.<\/p>\n
This is precisely why Made Wianta's upcoming colossal
\nperformance, Art and Peace, is worth more than our disdain or
\ncasual attention.<\/p>\n
What Made Wianta, one of Bali's best-known modern painters, is
\npreparing is indeed a colossal performance. On Dec. 10, the
\nInternational Day of Peace, he will carry around Bali, and then
\ndrop from a helicopter, no less than 2,000 pieces of material
\nwritten with the words of peace in all the world's main
\nlanguages. These flying banners will then be welcomed on the
\nbeach of Padang Galak by no less than 2000 dancers. This event
\nwill be preceded by a seminar on art and peace, a poetry
\nfestival, meetings of figures from the main international
\nreligions and various related activities.<\/p>\n
To affirm peace, instead of protesting violence: such is the
\nchallenge that Made Wianta has taken up. This is no easy task.
\nThe struggle \"for\" peace alone has a bad name in the small
\nactivists' world: it smells of the status quo and political
\nrepression. The Pax Neerlandica (Dutch Peace) left a sour taste
\nfor most Indonesians, and everyone recalls the relentless
\n\"struggle for peace\" of the former Soviet Union, not to forget
\nthe \"peaceful\" stability prevailing under Soeharto's New Order.<\/p>\n
So has Made Wianta entered into a trap? Is his Art and Peace
\nevent a distraction from the urgent need to \"make peace\", and
\ntherefore to side for justice against the dark forces at work in
\nEast Timor, Maluku, Aceh and Jakarta. Has he been manipulated? Or
\nis he engaged in the manipulation of the event for his own
\nmediatic purposes?<\/p>\n
These are the questions raised, sometimes naughtily, about the
\nevent. But what does the artist himself say, and what about the
\nrole of his Balinese context?<\/p>\n
\"My performance is a gift to peace, and it should as such
\ninfluence reality; it will create peace, the state of quietness
\n-- kerta raharja -- which all Balinese are longing for,\" he said.<\/p>\n
In other words Wianta's \"esthetics of peace\" should be
\nunderstood as an offering-cum mantra, the utterance of which
\ncompels a change to reality, a restoration of the \"cosmic order\"
\ndear to the Hindu Balinese.<\/p>\n
As for the accusation of manipulation, he said: \"I don't care;
\nthe fact that I have accumulated money during my career is
\naccidental. It was never a goal in itself, and for this reason
\nthe money I earn has now to be returned to where it belongs,
\ncreativity, i.e. the 'creation' of peace, which is where the
\nessence of religion belongs too.\"<\/p>\n
In Bali, people who \"make it\" are expected to contribute
\ndonations for the restoration of temples and the holding of
\nceremonies. To Wianta, the \"temple\" should therefore be
\nunderstood as being Bali itself or the \"world\", and his
\nperformance as being a donation. The potlatch-like \"wasting of
\nmoney\" of Art and Peace should therefore primarily be seen as a
\n\"traditional\" redistribution of wealth in a modern, aesthetic and
\nhumanistic way. As for the political aspect, it does not smell of
\nopportunism either: The idea of \"Art and Peace\" was conceived
\nbefore the democratic government came to power, when tensions
\nwere peaking in East Timor and Indonesians questioning the scope
\nand meaning of nationalistic and humanistic values. They were
\nrisky days.<\/p>\n
In short, what Wianta's Art and Peace tells us is that there
\nis room for a \"humanistic\" struggle for peace and justice that
\ndoes not follow Western paradigms. It avoids the theory of
\nconflict and the struggle for justice dear to Western leftists
\nand other liberals, and may be for this reason labeled as
\n\"naove\". But isn't the very affirmation of the \"word\" of peace --
\nbe it through the means of art -- a necessary precondition to the
\ntaking of concrete steps toward peace in troubled places. By
\nemphasizing the role of \"consciousness\", Made Wianta is actually
\nreminding us of the need to be, before anything else, idealistic:
\nit is in his own, very Balinese idealistic was that he embraces
\npeace and the world with it.<\/p>\n
The impact of the event will, of course, depend on its
\nimplementation. The technical problems of the helicopter -- wind,
\nthe unfurling of the 2000 pieces of material -- have been dealt
\nwith. Gunawan Muhammad and some other reputed national and
\ninternational speakers have confirmed their attendance. Everyone
\nin Bali is now waiting for the uttering of the magic mantra:
\n\"Peace\", and the colossal show -- the aesthetics of peace -- that
\naccompanies it.<\/p>",
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