Biennial Yogyakarta VII takes on a new look

Biennial Yogyakarta VII takes on a new look

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

After a four-year absence, Biennial Yogyakarta VII 2003 is
finally being held and presents over 20 individual or group works
of over 30 local artists.

Among the participating artists include Agus Suwage,
Anusapati, Dadang Christanto, Heri Dono, Mella Jaarsma, Hanura
Hosea, Bambang 'Toko' Witjaksono, Bunga Jeruk Permata Pekerti,
Pius Sigit Kuncoro, S. Teddy D., Sekar Jatiningrum, and Ugo
Untoro.

The biennial is being held at Societet Building on Jl. Sri
Wedani until Oct. 31.

There is at least one big difference between the Biennial
Yogyakarta VII 2003 and the previous ones.

Unlike the previous biennials that were managed and organized
almost solely by the state-owned TBY (Taman Budaya Yogyakarta)
Yogyakarta Cultural Center, this year's biennial has involved
private sponsorships to finance the event.

It has also invited a non-profit art project group, Antena
Projects, whose management comprises of local artists, including
noted artist Entang Wiharso to help organize the event.

Antena Project has been given more authority to select the
theme, the selection process of the participating artists, manage
the technical matters, and conduct the fund raising activities.

"You may say that //Countrybution// is basically the result of
collective work between the Yogyakarta art community, art lovers
and experts, and the artist community in general on one hand
with TBY on the other hand," TBY director Suprapto said,
referring to the central theme of this year's Yogyakarta
biennial.

According to Suprapto, since it was first held in 1988,
Biennial Yogyakarta could not be separated from the TBY.

Before it was named so, the event was initially a fine art
exhibition jointly held biennially by TBY in cooperation with the
Association of Indonesian Fine Arts (HSRI) since 1983.

It was later changed to Biennial Yogyakarta in 1988 with the
hope that, like other biennials in the world, would be considered
the peak of the development of fine arts in the city that had
long been known as the city of culture.

"Experience has shown that from time to time, the event has
won the people's attention. The fact is that we always receive
numerous critics, suggestions, and inputs from the community is
proof. It also shows that the biennial has become parts of the
community. It belongs to them," Suprapto said.

Suprapto also said that the decision to invite private
institutions to organize the biennial was mostly due to the
change in the government's policy following the implementation of
the government's regulation on regional autonomy.

The regulation had prompted the central government to provide
fund for TBY to continue holding the biennial activities. That
explained why it was unable to hold the Biennial Yogyakarta VII
on schedule in 2001 and forced it to seek for ways to revive it.

"Concerning about the uncertainty of the biennial existence in
the future, we then established this partnership (between TBY and
Antena Projects). It is through this partnership that we are
developing a new system that will hopefully enable the event to
be continuously held in the future," Entang said.

It is also for the same reason that the organizer also planned
to make a comprehensive documentation of whole art project so
that anyone would be able to analyze and evaluate the event for a
worthwhile organization of the biennial in the future.

Another difference in this biennial, according to Suprapto, is
the central theme given to this year's biennial. None of the six
previous biennials, held consecutively in 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994,
1996, and 1999, he said, was given a theme.

According to the biennial's curator Hendro Wiyanto, such a
theme was important because it was the theme that gave the
biennial an identity. //Countrybution//, which is formed from two
English words of //country// and //contribution//, according to
Hendro, was an agreed framework between the biennial's curator
and a participant selection team to provide the event with a
social context.

By doing so, he said, the multi-dimensional crisis that the
Indonesian community had been dealing with would become the base
carpet for the event that would further form the first base for
the correlation between various art exercises and their social
context.

"It will also form the relevance between the existence
of the biennial itself and the surrounding community," Hendro
said.

Entang Wiharso as coordinator of the biennial, similarly,
considered //Countrybution// as a path for the community to
appreciate the event and interact in it. The meaning of
//Contribution// contained in the theme, he said, had created a
relation between the spirit of the art creativity and the
community.