Culture counts: What price for the arts in our lives?
Stevie Emilia, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The 4th Art Summit Indonesia 2004 International Festival on Contemporary Performing Arts and Visual Arts opened on Saturday, an event boasting the scheduled participation of renowned artists from 14 countries.
Although there are fears Thursday's fatal bombing in Kuningan, South Jakarta, might cause cancellations by some foreign performers, the event could be just what the country needs to show its real, better side, especially in its aims of promoting peace and bridging intercultural differences.
"So far I've heard nothing," the art summit's chairman of the artistic board Putu Wijaya said on Thursday night when asked about cancellations.
"But of course, the organizer would take (good) care of security because we have foreign guests."
Unfortunately, although the event allows art lovers the chance to wallow in a month-long cultural treat, most people are still unaware of what is going on.
"I don't know about it, but then I'm more a movie person," Agus W., a teller in a private bank, said reluctantly.
With so few major festivals around -- the most notable popular events include the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta International Festival and the JakArt Festival -- tickets for the upcoming art summit should have sold out long before it even started.
But festivals rely mostly on the support of loyal supporters -- especially foreign cultural centers, local artists, corporate sponsors, patrons, institutions and volunteers. With little interest displayed in the festival, and the limited budget available, some may be asking if it's worthwhile to go on with the show in the future.
Art observer Amir Sidharta said cultural festivals should receive full support at all levels because quality cultural life was important to ensure people recognized they were civilized, cultured individuals, not only born to work and make money.
"So, arts events enrich us culturally, making us more sensitive, critical and capable of seeing things from different angles ... Thus arts events are very important," said Amir.
The festivals are also considered as a window into world happenings, as well as to help balance the rapid development of the more popular entertainment industry that, according to Putu Wijaya, "insulted" people's creative minds.
"Unfortunately, not all people are willing to take advantage of this kind of event although prices of the entrance tickets are not as high as a movie ticket," he said.
For example, ticket for a show by San Kai Jo Ku, which would cost Rp 1 million in Japan, is only Rp 20,000 here.
He expressed confidence that the public's lack of interest in arts festivals could be overcome by "motivating them to include arts festivals as part of their needs, at least once in three years".
Yet it's a goal that might take years to accomplish, because one cannot force-feed such events, and their importance, to a resistant public.
Professional dancer Restu Imansari Kusumaningrum of the Bali Purnati Center for the Arts, an institution that focuses on Central and East Indonesia, noted that the lack of interest in the arts could also be seen in the decrease in the number of students in art disciplines, especially dance, music and theater.
She also cited the poor financial assistance for the development and preservation of arts.
"The absence of a good education syllabus in elementary education (is also responsible) too, because the teachers do not possess adequate skills (to teach art appreciation)," said the woman, who played a major part in bringing the avant-garde production I La Galigo to the international stage.
Inspired by the 14th century Bugis epic poem Sureq Galigo, the production, which brought together theater, dance music and poetry into stage, was successfully premiered in the 2,000-seat Theater at the Esplanade in Singapore in March before going on a world tour. There are plans to stage it in Jakarta, but no date has been set.
She also highlighted the demands of urban living, with people wanting convenient consumerism without wishing to create or interact with others or explore culture, for the lack of interest in the arts festivals.
"So, there's not much growth in the number of the audience and arts supporters. Arts appreciation of urban people is limited. Desire to become a part of cultural life or the number of people who care and are aware of cultural preservation is very low."
She said the phenomenon arose during the authoritarian Soeharto regime, which spanned the mid-1960s to 1998, with people more interested in their own concerns.
"On the other hand, the creators and the art form developed at a slow pace in this country. It's very ironic," Restu said. "But if there's someone now who is still thinking that arts festivals are a waste of money, it means we're declining even further ..."
So is the answer for the arts festivals to take it to the masses by following popular forms?
Putu stated that festival organizers should not compromise their aims to follow commercial trends because the events would lose their meaning.
"An entertaining festival can be organized to lighten up the moment, but a festival (like the art summit), with 'the latest and the best' as its criteria, should be purely that."
In other words, if there is not the necessary support, all we will have to watch is the Britney Spears of this world, as a colleague remarked, or those second-billing performers willing to brave our cultural wasteland.