'artconneXions' an arena for an exchange of views

'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.

I-BOX:

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