'artconneXions' an arena for an exchange of views

Christina Schott, Contributor/Jakarta

"When I drive through Jakarta, my home city, I see it like my own house and I take a close look at the interior. But some strangers, a first-time-visitor to the very same city, will have another, more exotic perspective -- he will not look at the interior, but at the exterior, and will definitely get a more universal overview of the building and its situation."

Jakarta-based Eric Prasetya, who said the above, is one of three photographers who currently travel the length and breadth of the country's capital to document their very contrasting impressions of the city in pictures.

Padang-born Eric, together with his German colleague Matthias Koch and Lisa Crowley from New Zealand, are among nine teams in "artconneXions", an international art project initiated by the Goethe Institut Jakarta.

The curator for the Jakarta team is Firman Ichsan, a leading photographer here and the director of the Oktagon photo gallery. Their topic is urban space. Their technique: any photomedia.

Indeed, the perspectives of the three photographers show totally different angles. Eric started his work during the post- fasting month of Idul Fitri by portraying families on their way from the capital to their home villages. He took two pictures from families of very different classes and standards -- one at their home and one at the station with all their luggage before leaving Jakarta.

Since they are arranged, the photos do not show the real life of the families, but let them become super-numeraries in a big theater play taking place every year.

Crowley decided not to picture people in their private life after having traveled around Jakarta for two weeks.

"I can see and maybe understand a little bit the private life of the people here. But since I am a foreigner and do not speak their language, I stay completely outside their culture."

Therefore she stayed in the public space of the city and finally focused on taking pictures of families riding on one motorbike. "We have nothing like this in Auckland," the New Zealander said. "It shows a kind of privacy even in the middle of a street."

Koch had less time to explore the city than Crowley had. He was a last-minute replacement for Frauke Eigen, who was the first German participant to be invited but fell sick before she could come to Indonesia.

"The most difficult thing for me is to find my way in Jakarta. I once worked in Caracas and thought it could not be much worse here. But there I could always see the sun and the mountains what was much easier for the orientation. In Jakarta you do not see anything," he laughed.

The German wants to underline the contrast between day and night, bright and dark, crowded and empty at different places that are characteristic for the city. For example, a busy street with little craft and trade shops, which is deserted in the night. "This is like statement and counter-statement: everything has a reverse," he explained.

"artconneXions" is an ongoing work in progress. Artists and curators from nine countries are involved in the project, meeting in groups of three in nine cities in the Asia-Pacific region during the coming six months: Jakarta, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Hanoi, Manila, Auckland, Melbourne and Sydney.

Each team consists of an artist based in the respective city, a German photographer and one of a neighboring country -- the three of them then work together for around two months. The result of the workshops will be exhibited next year, for Jakarta the exhibition is planned in June 2005.

"The idea for this project has a long prehistory," said Marla Stukenberg, head of the cultural program department at Goethe Institut. "We primarily want to improve the regional network by enforcing the regional exchange between artists and curators as well as their contact to Germany."

While the nine participating Germans will stop at only one place, the participants from the region will always work in their own city as well as in one other place. Eric Prasetya will go to Bangkok at the beginning of the next year and Lisa Crowley will become the "host" in Auckland in February-March 2005.

"Being one month in Jakarta felt to me like three months experience, because it was so intensive," Lisa said. "I want to give the same feeling to my partner artists coming to Auckland next year by showing them the different facets of my city."

If the result is satisfying, these workshops could become a self-fulfilling prophecy by multiplying the number of contacts between the artists from different countries.

"It is an ongoing creative process," Firman explained, "I have rather a consulting role than curating the artists: They develop themselves and their works by exploring the new place and meeting a lot of people."

"artconneXions" could become an umbrella for other projects -- with different artistic media like theater for example. "We look for new dimensions in the region," Marla Stukenberg explained. The next curatorial meeting is already in planning.

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Further information: Goethe Institut Jakarta, Jl. Samratulangi 9- 15, Menteng, Central Jakarta, Tel: 021-23550208 or www.goethe.de/jakarta