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.