Expo unleashes art, voices of the South

Expo unleashes art, voices of the South

By Jason Tedjasukmana

JAKARTA (JP): As Indonesia winds down its chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement, it is only fitting that this year's NAM Ministerial Meeting be concluded with an art exhibition of equal international significance.

Entitled "Contemporary Art of the Non-Aligned Countries", this massive endeavor undertaken by the Ministry of Education and Culture will bring together works of art by 186 foreign artists representing 45 countries from Mexico, Central and South America, South and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and China.

Indonesia will also feature 34 of its own artists in the exhibition, which opens today at the Gedung Pameran Seni Rupa, across from the Gambir railway station in Central Jakarta, and runs through June 30.

Under Edi Sedyawati, the ministry's Director General of Cultural Affairs, over 350 paintings, drawings, etchings, prints, sculptures and installation works have been chosen to give voice to the collective concerns of the southern countries as well as the trends influencing the art of each nation.

Delegates from around the world will have an opportunity to witness developments in the contemporary art of Indonesia, an area that is finally receiving the attention it deserves through the works of Dede Eri Supria, Semsar Siahaan, H.Widayat and Djoko Pekik, to name but a few of the artists representing Indonesia.

Jakarta is one of the few major cities in the world without an established contemporary art venue and the NAM exhibition is breaking potentially precious ground.

With the Jakarta International Fine Arts Exhibition last October the city was graced by the prospect, however remote, of an annual international art fair.

The feeling surrounding the NAM exhibition is no less momentous as art patrons of the city lobby to have the Gedung Pameran Seni Rupa sanctioned as the official National Gallery of Indonesia.

Hegemony

The NAM exhibition also seeks to shatter any impressions that may have pigeonholed this sprawling archipelago as a static contemporary art force. Indonesia's image abroad has been one of rich cultural diversity and age-old traditions. Now, however, it is time for its contemporary artists to share in the recognition that has long been accorded to its more "traditional" arts and artists.

Countries of the South have been struggling to free themselves of a Euro-centric cultural hegemony for most of this century. When Picasso painted his landmark Cubist work Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907, it was claimed that he discovered a conceptual art form that fused modern European concepts with elements of African art.

Picasso's stylistic incorporation of "primitive" art was regarded by some as legitimizing African art in European art circles instead of acknowledging a debt to it. Today the issue is not one of inferiority but rather a reorientation and reevaluation of the physical and theoretical boundaries that confine contemporary art.

The same polemic holds true today on a geo-political level. Since the Non-Aligned Movement was formed in 1961, six years after Indonesia hosted the first Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, the NAM member countries have not tried to shape a common identity but rather a vision of the role South countries are to play in asserting their objectives in a rapidly shrinking world.

Indonesia has made considerable political and diplomatic progress during its three-year tenure as chairman of the Non- Aligned Movement, much of which was due to continuous dialog and debate.

However, as Maya Suharnoko of the exhibition's organizing committee explains, the medium of art can effectively raise questions and reveal trends in a way conventional dialog cannot.

"While political and economic issues traditionally dominate the NAM agenda, we wanted to offer another way of showing the developments of the South," said Maya.

"This exhibition will serve as an alternative to the North and its more widely-known contemporary art."

As Indonesia works to reshape its international profile, it must not overlook the contributions that contemporary artists have made to other developing societies.

The influence of artists from Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia, for example, is sensed worldwide and, in the marketplace, it is not unusual for them to command prices in excess of their European and American counterparts.

Exploration

To address a number of the socio-political issues facing the South today, the organizers have avoided arranging the exhibition along geographical lines in favor of five thematic sections: Confrontations, Questions and Quests; Tradition and Convention; Signs, Symbols and Scripts; The Body; and Space, Land and Mankind.

Two all-day seminars have also been scheduled for this weekend, though ironically, nearly half of the featured speakers hail from countries in "the North" (which includes Australia).

Eleven speakers from Europe, Australia and the United States as well as India, Thailand, Nigeria and the Philippines will present papers at Hotel Indonesia beginning Saturday morning.

Based on the theme of "Unity in Diversity in International Art" the lecturers will explore, among other things, how social and political changes are affecting the modes of artistic expression in the South.

Lastly, two smaller accompanying exhibitions will open this weekend: "Continuity in Change" will display contemporary Balinese art at Taman Ismail Marzuki until May 28 while the National Museum will hold a special exhibition of contemporary Indonesian art through June 30.