Fifteen years on Yogyakarta's Cemeti keeps art in the house

Fifteen years on Yogyakarta's Cemeti keeps art in the house

Asip A. Hasani, Contributor, Yogyakarta

While artists here have more commercial opportunities than before
and the public is showing a greater appreciation of fine art,
Yogyakarta's Cemeti Art House is one of the few galleries in the
country that are not profit driven.

Cemeti, which had its 15th anniversary last month, is
considered non-commercial by some local artists, as it houses a
number of experimental artworks, which are mostly not for sale.
Other artists have blasted Cemeti, saying that its management
does not think practically -- not about the artists' daily needs
or the future of their careers.

Cemeti owners, Nindityo Adipurnomo and Mella Jaarsma, who are
both installation artists -- and also husband and wife -- take
such comments in their stride.

"We know how tricky it is to market artworks, especially
paintings. Moreover, we don't have enough money to play the game
with art collectors and dealers," said Nindityo who studied at
The State Academy of Fine Arts, in Rijksacademie, Amsterdam in
1986.

Nindityo's argument is not without grounds, in the late 1980s
-- dubbed by art critics here as the "painting boom" -- wealthy
people and art connoisseurs, as well as entrepreneurs, began to
see local artwork and paintings as valuable investments. They
spent money on art regardless of the painters' reputations or the
quality of the works.

A doorway was opened for new names in the fine arts circle.
Nindityo believes that this happened due to the absence of a
credible institution or art critics who could help people to
determine the merit of an artwork. .

Nindityo and Mella established Cemeti in 1988. Painters Heri
Dono and Eddie Hara, and sculptor Anusapati were also involved at
that time. They rented a small house on Jl. Ngadisuryan with a
70-square-meter front room, which was ideal for a gallery. In the
first 6 months, the exhibition space was named Ruang Pamer Cemeti
(Cemeti Exhibition Room) before becoming Cemeti Modern Gallery.
In 1994 the name was changed again to Cemeti Contemporary Art
Gallery.

"It is rather strange that we used the words contemporary art
because here we were never really interested in modernism,"
Nindityo said.

Cemeti was unusual for a gallery of the 1980's, when new
galleries were mushrooming and painting exhibitions were
frequently held. Instead of becoming part of the mainstream,
Cemeti was a venue for installation and performance art, which
were not really popular back then.

In 1993, for instance, Bandung installation artist Andar Manik
dug a hole in the floor of Cemeti's exhibition room as part of
his artwork. The Ruang Rupa artists actually dined in the
exhibition room in the name of art. Having finished their meals,
they left rubbish and remnants of food scattered on the floor for
almost a month, until the end of the exhibition.

Foreign artists, like Ichi Ikeda of Japan and Ye Shufang of
Singapore, have displayed their works in Cemeti and Mella -- who
graduated from the Minerva University, Groningen -- also
frequently exhibits her pieces of work there.

However, not all the artwork displayed by Cemeti are
alternative. Top painters Agus Suwage, Heri Dono, Eddie Hara,
Agung Kurniawan and Murniasih once regularly exhibited in the
gallery.

Naming no names, Nindityo recalls how difficult it was to deal
with greedy art dealers as well as needy artists. Many times, the
artists pulled their works out from Cemeti as they had signed
deals with art dealers or other galleries, without Cemeti's
knowledge.

"(Our policy) is for the painter to leave their work at Cemeti
for at least six months after their exhibition," said Nindityo
who was born in Semarang, Central Java.

Disappointment with the local art industry pressed Nindityo
and Mella to seek opportunities abroad. Both made it, although
not always in terms of selling works of art.

Cemeti seized the opportunity to regularly supply some modern
art museums in Europe with the works of Indonesian artists,
including Nindityo's and Mella's. With their wide overseas
network, in cooperation with Dutch-funded non-governmental
organization Hivos, Cemeti founded Cemeti Art Foundation in 1996.

If Cemeti has stepped outside of the mainstream, it seems to
be doing very well. However, Nindityo did say that, "Up until
now, our gallery's income doesn't cover its operational costs."