German stage designer Neumann finds inspiration on the streets of Yogya

German stage designer Neumann finds inspiration on the streets of Yogya

Christina Schott, Contributor, Yogyakarta

Bert Neumann was born in 1960 in the East German town of
Magdeburg, and is currently in Yogyakarta by support of the
Goethe Institute Jakarta. With a background in stage design,
Neumann's first contract was with the city theater of Potsdam.
Finding the regulations there to be too strict, he struck out on
his own as a freelancer. In 1992, he helped director Frank
Castorf in saving the former socialist theater, Volksbuehne, from
closure, and in turning it into one of the most controversial,
yet highly popular stages in Germany. The Jakarta Post talked to
the stage designer about his experiences in Indonesia.

Question: Did you hesitate to hold a workshop in Indonesia?

Answer: No, it's awfully interesting to hold a workshop here.
I am very curious and always want to gain new experiences.

Since I had never been to Asia before, I couldn't come with a
ready plan, but with a flexible concept. I wanted to avoid any
danger of cultural colonialism.

Of course, there are particular questions I try to place
somehow -- the topic of globalization for example, or the role of
tourism in Indonesia. But first we all had to get to know each
other.

How did you proceed then?

In principle, I just stimulate, (this is) how I usually work:
watching my environment and trying to find an essence of it,
which I further connect with the text I am working with.

I described how we work at the Volksbuehne, where everybody --
actor, director, stage designer -- has his own space. I explained
that the Volksbuehne is a product of the German reunification fed
by our East German biographies, by the clash between the system
of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the sudden
confrontation with the West.

Former principles and structures of life have completely
changed. With such a contradictory experience, one gets another
view of new things. I don't mean to be retrospective, on the
contrary, we were lucky about the new wind. Nevertheless, there
are a lot of things to be questioned. I had the feeling the
people here understood this quite well -- since here a lot of
ongoing changes are happening as well.

How was the response to your working technique?

Although we all didn't know each other before and come from
very different cultures, I have the impression we found a common
language. The participants, of course, have different concepts
about what theater is.

Some understand theater as an enclosed cosmos, which I can
understand under these circumstances. Here, it is still hard to
create an artwork for itself -- whereas in Germany, it is far
more usual to have a space sanctified just for art. Such a
perfect, artificial cosmos of art is like an antipode to the life
on the streets here, where everything is totally contradictory --
where old and new, traditional and modern, poor and rich
vehemently clash all day.

Other participants, though, are rather interested in projects
outside the theater, meaning in a non-theatrical reality, which
perfectly fits my way of working that is a result of my
experiences in the GDR, where so many things were not available
and one had to deal with what you got.

Not the vision, but the availability of the material is the
starting point. It's from there that the idea develops, which
guarantees an authentic, coherent result. And it's a good way to
create something with little money, too.

What impressions did you receive from being in Indonesia?

The street life with all its contrasts is very interesting.

At first, I thought it was completely chaotic, but somehow the
system seems to organize itself without having to talk about the
rules.

I also learned a lot from the architecture, how people build,
the materials they use. This mix of traditional and modern
influences is quite brilliant, a Coca-Cola vending machine inside
a bamboo hut, creating a new esthetics I find fascinating.

Somehow this reflects much more the actual world than the all
regulated and sorted city plans in Germany, where most things
happen behind the facade. What makes me feel close to a city like
Yogyakarta is that it doesn't look perfect.

As a human being, I can never be perfect, therefore I feel
much more comfortable in such an environment, as opposed to the
polished surfaces in our cities that always pretend I have to be
as perfect as them.

What do you hope to take home with you?

I hope this workshop results in an ongoing contact, that we
follow each other's further development. It's not so important to
attain a model for a stage design in the end -- two weeks
wouldn't be enough for this anyway.

But I think we opened new horizons and perspectives for each
other. For sure, I got a lot of new impressions. I tried to share
a new view on reality.

I want to encourage the people to use unusual ways, to work
out radical, subjective interpretations, because there is no
objective truth in art. Everyone who decides to work as a stage
designer in the future should be self-confident enough to take
his own stand.