26th arts festival rises to occasion, despite cool reception from critics
26th arts festival rises to occasion, despite cool reception from critics
Kadek Suartaya, Contributor/Denpasar
After a month involving hundreds of domestic and foreign
artistes, the 26th Bali Arts Festival, which ran from June 19
through July 17, was officially closed last weekend, leaving much
work still to be done by both the artistes and organizer.
Aimed at enhancing Balinese culture and preserving its age-old
performing tradition, the recent festival appeared to meet its
objectives, despite much criticism on the implementation of the
event and on the selection of art forms performed before the
public.
Whether or not the festival served to meet the demands of the
public and the artistes, it must be admitted that the event was
able to function as a driving force for local artistes to display
their talent and creations.
The festival successfully presented archaic Balinese
performance art forms that are difficult to find on any stage on
the island nowadays. It also became a flourishing event for new
creations and innovations, regardless of harsh criticism that the
festival has been a boring and monotonous arts event since it was
first held 26 years ago.
What's more, there was clear evidence that the festival had a
communal function to establish artistes within their own
communities. Amid rapid modernization that has gradually
diminished the once-strong sense of communality among artistes
and society, the festival proved the opposite.
Traditionally, Balinese artistes performed their creations as
part of humble, spiritual offerings to their gods.
The performing arts are considered to be a divine act to
enrich their spiritual well-being. In the past, artistes
performed at a variety of religious and communal festivities. In
the past, most Balinese artistes rarely considered their work as
a commercial product that could generate money and, most of all,
fame. They dedicated their artistic creations to their gods and
society.
Such an attitude, locally known as ngayah, has been polluted
by a flood of commercialism and the strong influence of market-
oriented pop culture, which places money and fame above all else.
At the recent festival, the spirit of communalism was again
aroused among the artistes. A clear example of this was seen
during the festival of Gong Kebyar. Each participating group came
from a sekaa (art group) within banjar (traditional village
communities) across the island.
Prior to the festival, every sekaa had to spend at least four
months to six months practicing and rehearsing. Each Gong Kebyar
group usually consists of dozens of members -- gamelan players,
dancers and others.
During rehearsals, the members of each respective banjar would
come together to make their group's performance at the festival a
success. The artistes' accomplishments at the event would bring
pride and respect to their banjar.
The banjar members would willingly give donations in the form
of cash, food, costumes, transportation and other necessary items
needed for the arts performance.
Every member of the banjar would feel the need to support
their group in whatever way they could.
I think this is a positive side to the festival. Bali has
grown rapidly as a tourist island where a lot of art forms have
been created and presented to delight the tourist industry. There
is also a common feeling among artistes that they deserve to be
rewarded by the busy and profitable industry.
As a result, they (the artistes) have forgotten their original
objectives when performing. In the last few years, numerous
artistes, some talented and others mediocre, have proudly
performed their creations in hotels, restaurants and holiday
resorts in return for a meager amount of money and applause.
The festival was able to reclaim the original artistic spirit
of Balinese artistes: performing the arts for arts' sake.
However, time alone will tell if the artistes and the organizer
can maintain this commitment, given the pervasive impact of
commercialism and globalization.
The writer is a lecturer at the Denpasar Institute of Arts (ISI)
and an avid gamelan artiste.