Contemporary RI arts go international

Contemporary RI arts go international

By Boudewijn Brands

DELFT, the Netherlands (JP): Appreciation of an artist's work
is like the effect a stone has when thrown into a calm lake:
ripples spread in expanding circles. At a first exhibition there
is mostly family and friends. A few years later the artist
becomes known in his hometown and, if lucky, national coverage
follows.

This road is facilitated very much by personal contacts, as
well as professional.

Nobody is surprised that Affandi's works are known the world
over. But it is different with artists of the younger generation.

However, their work can be seen in Europe, 15,000 kilometers
from their base.

Since June, Indonesian contemporary art can be seen in three
places in the Netherlands. The exhibition with the largest budget
is Reformasi Indonesia, an exhibition with art from 1995 to 2000
expressing protest. This exhibition in Museum Nusantara in Delft
runs until Sept.3, 2000 and was curated by Helena Spanjaard.

Preparations for this exhibition started in August l999. The
exhibition was opened by Toeti Nurhadi.

An exhibition focusing on the work of relatively young artists
is being held in Gallery Bremmer, established in l986 in the city
of Tilburg. This exhibition was organized in one month using part
of a private collection already available in the Netherlands.

Both exhibitions are well documented. The first focuses on the
political situation in Indonesia and the second on how young
artists in Indonesia work and under what conditions.

A third exhibition is being held in a public library in
upmarket Amsterdam-South. This was organized by the Foundation
Asian Pacific Art Namana and has an educational purpose. The
works shown are from the collection of this foundation. After
Amsterdam, the exhibition will tour other cities.

Events in Indonesia in recent years have obviously attracted
world attention. However, as Spanjaard explains in the
documentation of the Delft exhibition, it is not the first time
Indonesian artists have used politics as their subject. She
refers to the association of Indonesian painters founded by
Sudjojono in l938 and their members who aimed to support the
revolution with their art. Under the New Order government, a
similar movement seemed to have developed with the foundation, in
l974, of the Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru Indonesia (New Indonesian Art
Movement). Today not only politics features in Indonesian
contemporary art, but also repression and abuse of power.

However, that this is not the everyday inspiration of
Indonesian artists can be seen in Gallery Bremmer. The only works
politically inspired are two etchings by Agung Kurniawan and
Tisna Sanjaya. These are part of a series of five from the
portfolio edited on the occasion of the BiasSahaja graphic
exhibition, held in November last year in Jakarta. These two
artists also have works in the Delft exhibition.

Other art in Bremmer reflects the surroundings (small
landscapes by Hendra Usman done when he was 18 years old at INS
Kayutanam), animals and their movements (Eko Rahmy) and Javanese
mystique, humans and animals in strong works by Sutrisno. Others
purely focus on aesthetics and the pleasure to create (Surajiya)
situations in life (Antok Ruswandoko). And the very personal
experiences during the night when the artist has no home in
Jakarta.

The documentation prepared for this exhibition gave the
visitor much more information. Some of it is about the limited
art market, low earnings, the difficulty to get accepted into an
academy or to get an income after earning an art degree.

The text also points to other places in the Netherlands where
good art by young Indonesian artists can be seen and even rented,
as in the CBK art center in the city of Dordrecht, and to the
books available for those who want to learn more about this
subject.

From the list of artists represented in the Delft exhibition,
it can be seen artists of all ages are represented. The youngest,
Muchtar Sofwan Zarkasi, is 27, and noted Djoko Pekik is 62. The
biographies of these artists reveal a bit of the
internationalization of Indonesian contemporary art through the
list of exhibitions that these artists have participated in.
Japan, with its great interests in the area, regularly exhibits
art from Indonesia, as does Australia, Singapore and Thailand.
The West is represented by the USA and the European Union (EU).
When we detail the EU by country we find Italy, the United
Kingdom, Denmark, France and Finland have each held one. Germany
has held two and the Netherlands five.

If we look at the education of the 13 artists, only four had
an education outside of Indonesia: two in the Netherlands, one in
Germany and one in the United Kingdom as well as the USA.

But what about appreciation of contemporary art in Indonesia
itself? Known are a few great collectors in the country that give
young, good artists a chance. And many buyers in Jakarta are
foreigners.

But it seems that they understand the future. If we make a
comparison between two countries of different economic levels we
can predict that Indonesian contemporary art will have a bright
future. There is a good chance that current production will be
bought back at high prices. Foreigners (as well as specialized
local collectors) are relatively more open to strange, abstract,
cruel, ugly, experimental and political art.

So a lot is taken away. Now, take a look at statistics: in
Tilburg, which has a population of 200,000, there are about 600
artists. With more than 200 million inhabitants, Indonesia would
have the same artist density: about 600,000. When politics and
after that the economy normalize and wealth increases, the
prospects for artists in Indonesia will be very bright indeed.