Biennale Jogja expresses concern over the city's heritage
Biennale Jogja expresses concern over the city's heritage
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post/Yogyakarta
Biennale Jogja 2005, Yogyakarta's biggest visual art event, kicked off last week with a focus on the preservation of the city's heritage sites, which are disappearing at an alarming rate and a call to preserve them for the benefit of the people and future generations.
As such, instead of taking place at only one venue as was always the case previously, it is now taking place at 14 different heritage sites throughout the historical city of Yogyakarta.
The sites range from the sacred to the profane, from a study or office to a cultural site or tourist resort, which are in the main between 50 years to 100 years old.
Among them are the compound of the ancient grand mosque of Masjid Agung in Kotagede and St. Yusuf Church in Bintaran, the old cigar factory PD Tarumartani, Benteng Vredeburg Museum, Sagan neighborhood and Nitiprayan cultural village.
"We have the dream that someday artworks will become the heritage sites," one of the biennale's curators Mikke Susanto said.
Another curator of the biennale, Eko Prawoto, said that an art event indeed needed to be linked to the life of the city, which was currently facing a clash between tradition and modernism that had become a fight between the opposing sides for the city's public spaces.
Yogyakarta, according to Eko, is just like any other city in the world in terms of heritage preservation. The intensive physical development that the city is experiencing is happening at the cost of its precious heritage sites.
"Some of the old buildings that have a significant contribution to the city's history are now just history," said Eko, who is also an architect and a lecturer at Yogyakarta-based Duta Wacana Christian University.
Unless something is done about it, he said, the city would experience what he called cultural amnesia. The city would lose its roots for cultural development.
"Art, in this case, can function to open people's awareness. Through an art event we can reintroduce our tradition to the younger generation so that they can learn something from the past," Eko said.
Some of the 118 individual and group works of both domestic and international artists participating in the biennale themed: Di Sini dan Kini (Here and Now), indeed give a clear message.
Installation work The Last Stars in the Night (2005) by Canadian artist Deborah J Nolan is an example.
Comprising of a main installation (90 x 90 centimeters square, printed map with lights, acrylic, silver paint) and street installations (boxes of 13 x 9.5 x 7.5 centimeters each with acrylic, battery-run lights, mixed media), the work carries a message for the public to appreciate Yogyakarta's cultural heritage.
The boxes are installed in 40 different spots throughout Yogyakarta that represent the city's cultural icons such as traditional street eatery angkringan, traditional house, and the natural heritage of the rare Tanjung trees.
According to the artist, her work explores the issue of heritage by forming particular constellations of stars, namely Sagittarius (the archer) and Corona Australis (the constellation of finding the meaning of life).
Each of the boxes carries a different statement or question that are actually a call to think about the respective heritage sites that are neither monumental nor written in textbooks on Indonesian history, and how history has been recorded through the site.
"It is our consciousness of the past and now that will inspire and help us act responsibly for the future,' wrote Nolan about her work.
Another example comes from the works of Dutch artist Frank van den Ham that are exhibited at the hall of the Dutch cultural center Karta Pustaka Yogyakarta.
Comprising of two pieces of glassworks, the artworks are meant to remind people of the importance of looking back at the past to proceed to the future.
"If we are smart, we will always look back at the past. There is always something that we can learn from the past," Van den Ham said.
Officially opened by wayang artist Sigit Sukasman, who was awarded the 2005 lifetime achievement award by the biennale's organizing committee, Biennale Jogja 2005 will run until Dec. 22.
Chairwoman of the organizing committee Anggi Minarni said the committee initially received 312 proposals of works for the biennale and had also invited 70 foreign artists to take part in the event.
However, after selection by the biennale's team of three curators (the other curator is Dwi Marianto of the Indonesian Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta), only 118 individual and group visual art works were selected to be exhibited.
They comprise 32 paintings, 25 installation works and 23 sculptures. The rest are performance arts, textile works, video art, ceramic works, graphic art, graphic designs, public art, digital printed arts, a photo work, and a glasswork.
A series of supporting discussions and performances involving people of various backgrounds are also being held to make the biennale more meaningful to the community.
Foreign participating artists come from Japan, Canada, Liechtenstein, Australia, Malaysia and the Netherlands. National participants are from Yogyakarta, Bali, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, and Kalimantan.
Biennale Jogja was first held in 1988. This year's is the 8th. The previous biennials were held in 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1999, and 2003.
There was no biennale held in 2001. This was mostly due to the economic crisis and the implementation of a new government regulation on regional autonomy that changed the structural position of the government institution Taman Budaya Yogyakarta (TBY) cultural center that was tasked with organizing the event.
TBY had taken the main role as the organizer of the biennale up until 1999. However, since 2003 it has played the role of facilitator.