Art Summit part of 'bigger process'

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): As Henrietta Horn and the dancers from Folkwang Tanzstudio left the stage at Graha Bakti Budaya in Taman Ismail Marzuki on Thursday evening, the Third Art Summit Indonesia 2001 International Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts officially closed.

For a month, art enthusiasts were treated to performances by world-class artists from 10 countries, including dancers, musicians and actors from Indonesia.

But the big question is, what next? Were the shows just shows? Was this huge event simply a waste of energy and money?

The dean of the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ)'s School of Performing Arts, Sal Murgiyanto, said the festival was part of a larger process of educating children about culture and the process should not end with the closing of the art summit.

He said the process of educating the younger generation was not a waste of time, energy and money, nor was it the responsibility of one government office, institution or group.

"Everyone should take part in this process," the noted dance critic said.

He said this education process was important because younger people today tended to judge everything based on its economic value.

"In the end, as we can see now, people have little appreciation for the lives of other people, killing others is so easy. These cultural, performing arts are intended to touch people, to remind them and to make them aware there are other important aspects to people's lives, like love, hope, joy and appreciation," Sal said.

The process of educating children has to go beyond simple book knowledge, otherwise it is pointless, he said.

"As you can see now, even during shows some people let their mobile phones ring, disturbing and violating other people's right to enjoy the shows. It's arrogant, (there is) no sensitivity or appreciation for other people at all."

He realizes, however, that many people would prefer to stay at home and watch TV rather than attend an art performance. Yet, this does not mean art summits and festivals are not important.

"Like I said before, this is a process. If there are not very many people coming to enjoy the shows, maybe we should improve the management, not the other way around," said Sal, a member of the summit's artistic board.

The attendance at this year's art summit was something of a disappointment for organizers, particularly considering that there were more artists participating in the summit than in previous years.

At the first festival, 15 art groups from nine countries took part, while at the second one there were 15 groups from eight countries.

The organizers did their best to attract audiences. According to Yusuf Susilo Hartono, who handled public relations for the organizing committee, students from several schools in Jakarta were invited to watch rehearsals and talk to the artists.

The organizers also worked out a deal with state-owned television station TVRI to air its opening ceremony, enabling a wider audience to enjoy at least one of the summit's events.

"We even received e-mails from abroad, expressing happiness at being able to enjoy the opening ceremony. Since TVRI also reaches Australia, some of the people there were able to enjoy Strange Fruit's dance piece which kicked off the event," Yusuf said.

As part of its efforts to expose more people to the cultural event, two of the performances -- by Strange Fruit of Australia and El Warsha of Egypt -- were free of charge. Strange Fruit performed for two days at Plaza Senayan's outdoor plaza in South Jakarta, while theater troupe El Warsha held two performances in Taman Ismail Marzuki's outdoor hall.

"The decision to open the art summit with Strange Fruit performing outdoors for free at Plaza Senayan was an excellent idea, exposing the general public to the festival. It opened access and increased awareness for many people not normally interested in buying tickets to see contemporary performances," said Linda Hoemar Abidin, a performing arts management lecturer at IKJ.

She said some of the performances at the summit were very good, such as the piece by Indonesian dancer Boi G. Sakti. "(If) emerging artists like him were given the invaluable opportunity to travel abroad -- to see performances, to exchange ideas, to learn from and work with international artists -- they would eventually flourish," the former dancer said.

While organizers may have hoped for larger attendance figures, some performances were sold-out and many performers received warm responses from the audience, such as Boi G. Sakti, Farida Oetoyo, Teater Koma, Akhram Khan, Guangdong Modern Dance Company, Pappa Tarahumara, Kim Bock Hee and Folkwang.

Others performances, including many of the musical performances, received a moderate response.

"The art summit certainly plays a significant role in further developing the country's performing arts since it offered artists, arts workers, managers, scholars and the general public an opportunity to gain an understanding of other cultures, and most importantly, our own," Linda said, adding that the summit may indirectly influence the way artists create new works and the way people look at the performing arts.

"However, it was disheartening to see that the reserved VIP rows often remained almost empty," she added.

In order to encourage more people to attend future art summits, she suggested organizers further subsidize the tickets in order to allow more young people to attend performances.

"I hope the excitement created by the event will be maintained through follow-up activities such as innovative performing arts programs at each performance venue."