Experts call for inclusion of arts in schools

By Linda Hoemar Abidin

JAKARTA (JP): Discussions on the problems and challenges of multicultural works in the performing arts were at the heart of the International Seminar on Contemporary Performing Arts in conjunction with the Third Art Summit Indonesia 2001.

The two-day seminar, on Sept. 14 and Sept. 15, was organized by the Directorate General for the Arts under the office of the State Minister of Culture and Tourism at Hotel Indonesia.

Ten speakers from eight countries were present at the seminar. Ian Jarvis Brown from Australia, Saini K. M. from Indonesia and Krishen Jit from Malaysia represented the field of theater while Leonardo D'Amico from Italy, Rahayu Supanggah from Indonesia and Anderson Sutton from the United States represented the field of music. Further, Kazuko Kuniyoshi from Japan, Pornrat Damrhung from Thailand, Klaus Witzeling from Germany and Sardono W. Kusumo from Indonesia represented the field of dance.

The Art Summit was designed to provide a forum of peace at a time of conflict - a forum to promote dialog and tolerance. Therefore, the seminar was meant to support the creation of a conceptual map of the situations and problems brought upon multicultural encounters and collaborations in the contemporary performing arts scene.

In an increasingly global world, amid political conflict and economic boundaries, opportunities for artists from different cultures to interact with each other and to enrich their own artistic expression have also increased. These encounters and collaborations bring forth not only opportunities but also challenges.

Facilitated by international funding agencies, many collaborative efforts involving artists from various cultures have taken place in the last decades.

In his presentation "Multiculturalism: Sources and Opportunities," Jit talked about Peter Brook's The Mahabharata, which involved an international cast of actors from England, France, Turkey, Japan, Iran, Poland, Italy, South Africa, Senegal, India and Indonesia.

By using the famed Indian epic as a universal story and working with artists from different cultures, Brook, an American living in Paris, created a phenomenal sensibility, which provoked a controversy.

Most recently, a Japanese playwright with Singaporean director Ong Keng Sen collaborated with actors, dancers and musicians from Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia in the production of Lear, an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear. Lear brought together an array of traditional Asian forms of performing arts, such as the Japanese Noh theater, the Beijing Opera, the West Sumatra martial arts and Gamelan music.

In Lear, actors used the language of their own nationality. As a consequence, the use of subtitles during the performance became a necessity. Both Lear and The Mahabharata exemplify the contemporary artists' struggle in search of new forms of expression.

By addressing global issues and bringing together artists from various cultural backgrounds, a multicultural work based on new approaches would emerge. The collaborative process, however, is not without its many challenges.

Rahayu, in her paper "Collaboration: Prospects and Problems," conveyed that, too often, cultural collaborations take place over a very short period of time, such as during a festival, which is not ideal.

Sardono later added that a cultural collaboration's emphasis is on the process rather than the final product. It is not about attaining a new technique, but about deepening one's understanding about other people's lives -- it is about observing and absorbing different cultures.

Kuniyoshi said in her paper "Multinational Co-Productions in Japan," that a continuous effort and sensitivity is key in supporting a two-way communication process in collaborative projects that involve different cultures.

Certainly, audiences need to be prepared in the context of what sort of multicultural production they are about to see. This notion was further supported by Sutton in his paper "Presenting and Representing: Indonesian Performing Arts Across Cultural Boundaries."

Sutton, having been involved in the Festival of Indonesia in the United States (KIAS) in 1990 and 1991, suggested that, in addition to the preparation process, a sustained effort in follow-up activities by performers, promoters and educators must be made toward nurturing a mutual appreciation and understanding through a cross-cultural dialog.

The responsibilities of artists to foster an open and continuous communication with the wider public was further elaborated by Damrhung in her paper "Performing Arts: Missions and the Problem of Communication".

Damrhung, who had spoken earlier during the Indonesian Performing Arts Society seminar about the role of education, in the field of cultural management, stated that it is the artists' duty to create new works through the act of listening, conducting discussions and collaborations. She is a firm believer that this is an issue of education, which needs to be fully supported by the government.

To ensure that traditional arts and culture remain a vital part of our future society, the arts must have a firm place within the schools.

Learning to work together with people from different backgrounds, to overcome the challenges that multicultural encounters pose, requires an active engagement in practical ways to gain not only an understanding, but also tolerance and respect for other people.

The writer is the performing arts management lecturer at the Jakarta Institute for the Arts (IKJ)