Performing arts intentive, but still lack adequate support<\/p>\n
Helly Minarti, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Another year has passed for Indonesia's performing arts, but with
\na staggering rise in poverty and corruption, plus the oil crisis
\novershadowing the country throughout the year, the government
\ncontinues to keep the arts at arm's length.<\/p>\n
But strangely, during this tumultuous year, a combination of
\nthings took place in the cultural sphere: from the usual
\nperformances, festivals and arts market up to the national
\ncongress of the arts.<\/p>\n
However, the potential of the arts in general still stops at
\npoliticians' rhetoric.<\/p>\n
Thus, the performing arts, like any other art form in
\nIndonesia, are viewed as an unnecessary frill by the government.<\/p>\n
The stubbornness it took to hold the Indonesian Performing
\nArts Market (IPAM) in Bali last June, is a perfect example
\nof how the government does not have any knowledge about the
\nlocal, let alone global, arts scene.<\/p>\n
Hence, putting the first (local) into the context of the
\nsecond (global) is still a big problem.<\/p>\n
The IPAM seems to follow the strategies of developed
\ncountries, such as Australia (Adelaide Arts Market), Japan (Tokyo
\nArts Market) and Singapore (Asian Arts Marts -- held biennially
\nsince 2002).<\/p>\n
While the national cultural policy is yet to be drafted, and
\nthe arts infrastructure is still in very poor condition, it is
\nlaughable to hold a so-called \"international arts market\",
\npredictably resulting in a disorganized, non-strategic event.<\/p>\n
The Rp 600 million spent for this event would have been better
\nspent on arts infrastructure and supporting budding artists and
\narts managers. Instead, local artists, who dreamed of performing
\nabroad, ended up being disappointed by the poor quality of
\nmanagement by the organizers.<\/p>\n
In the capital, the Jakarta Arts Council (DKJ) became both a
\nsubject of gossip in arts circles as well as public scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, some artists printed pamphlets, demanding
\nthat the DKJ be audited by a public accountant.<\/p>\n
Corruption is indeed still rampant, not only in the local
\ngovernment arts body in Jakarta, but also local governments
\nacross Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Outrageously marked-up projects and the \"blank\" receipts that
\ncommissioned artists have to sign -- meaning that
\nthey will receive only a small amount of the allocated funding
\nthey should have received otherwise -- remain \"normal\" practices.<\/p>\n
While the Meeting of Women's Theater Playwrights and Directors
\nheld by the DKJ sounded promising, it turned out to
\nlack critical discourse and should have focused on a specific
\ntheme.<\/p>\n
The Arts Suku performances of four groups from tribes living
\nin remote areas of Indonesia ignored the question of how to
\npresent a tribal culture to a city audience without taking it out
\nof context.<\/p>\n
Another program, Koreografer Lintas Generasi (Inter-Generation
\nChoreographers) in November re-introduced the after-performance
\ndiscussion, inviting two critics to review the works of 15
\nchoreographers.<\/p>\n
The tension stemming from this discussion revealed the
\ncritical situation of how deeply uncritical contemporary dance
\nhas become.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the loose, rather dubious curatorial framework of
\nthe event was explained away by the organizers as being the
\nlocating of choreographers in the country rather than
\na presentation of strands of the contemporary dance scene.<\/p>\n
Funnily enough, the DKJ has not put together any suitable
\nprograms for supporting artistic creation -- both in terms of
\nfunding and training.<\/p>\n
Lastly on the DKJ, its initiative to hold a national
\nconference by inviting all arts councils across Indonesia to
\nPapua in August, was easily read as a political move --
\nunfortunately, in the tradition of the New Order, centralized,
\nmobilizing-all spirit -- of some individuals who tried to lobby
\nthe founders of the Central Arts Council.<\/p>\n
The fact that many of these provincial arts councils are non-
\nactive, let alone credible before their main stakeholders (the
\narts community) raised a question as to how this bunch of
\nbureaucrats -- often full of personal bias and highly incapable
\nin arts management and policy-making -- could facilitate the arts
\ncommunity they serve, as they should function.<\/p>\n
Feedback was bountiful, judging from the writing in the mass
\nmedia by artists, critics, curators and even arts managers -- but
\nthis was not treated as input at all.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, regional autonomy helps stimulate
\nlocalities in managing arts events across provinces. The biennial
\nPasar Tari Kontemporer -- now in its fourth year -- was held
\nagain in Riau, Pekanbaru in late August.<\/p>\n
A big arts festival in Surabaya in June seemed to balance the
\nchockablock schedule of festivals in the capital -- one organized
\nby the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta\/GKJ, overlapping with the French
\nSpring Festival organized by the French Cultural Center,
\novershadowing the badly promoted Solo Frontier Festival -- all in
\nthe same month.<\/p>\n
Also in June was the international premier of Waktu Batu III
\n(Stone Age III), a play by Yogyakarta-based Teater Garasi, in the
\nHouse of World Cultures in Berlin.<\/p>\n
The next challenge is how to present Indonesian artists' work
\noutside the confines of venues set aside for \"world culture\" (or
\ninterpretively non-Western cultures).<\/p>\n
The Arts Congress (Kongres Kesenian) was held (the last was 10
\nyears ago) again this year in Jakarta. Unfortunately, it ended in
\nhavoc rather than producing some ideas for the arts world in
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
The usually hectic schedule of before and after Lebaran arts
\nperformances was repeated again this year in Jakarta --
\nhighlighting the need for arts managers (and the city government)
\nto come together to regulate the future cultural agenda.<\/p>\n
In December alone, Robert Wilson's I La Galigo
\n(www.ilagaligo.com), premiered in the country from Dec. 10
\nthrough Dec. 12; and the Festival of World Music (also featuring
\nRahayu Supanggah, I La Galigo's music director) was held at the
\nGKJ. The international show was inspired by Sureq Galigo, a 14th
\ncentury epic poem, the story of which originated with the Bugis
\nfrom South Sulawesi.<\/p>\n
The production caused a stir two years ago when the renowned
\nWilson came to Indonesia to audition local artists. It then
\npremiered at Singapore's Esplanade, and has toured the world bar
\nits home country.<\/p>\n
These two coincided with the annual Jakarta International Film
\nFestival (Jiffest).<\/p>\n
Last but not least is the state of Taman Ismail Marzuki
\n(Jakarta Arts Center).<\/p>\n
Starting life as the yardstick of the nation's cultural life
\nin the 1970s, TIM has become the mockery of the arts crowd
\ndue to its old-style management and allegedly corruption-prone
\nbuilding project.<\/p>\n
The small theater -- which has already been \"renovated\" more
\nthan once -- is designed so awkwardly that the audience is
\ninconvenienced.<\/p>\n
Did they not consult a theater designer before they laid the
\nfoundations?<\/p>\n
While the main theater's construction deadline -- I am losing
\ntrack of how many years it has taken so far to build this
\nsupposedly prime venue for performing arts in the country -- gets
\nfurther and further away.<\/p>\n
Compared to the contemporary space of the Kuala Lumpur
\nPerforming Arts Center -- which only took a year to build -- TIM
\nappears to be a never-ending construction project, not to mention
\nits antiquated services for both artists and audiences.<\/p>\n
At the very least, the GKJ took phone reservations -- an
\nimpossibility apparently for TIM's Graha Bhakti Budaya management
\n-- although the box office is always staffed by at least three
\npeople on performance nights.<\/p>",
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