IKJ students stage artistic demonstration

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian students want to be heard. They want to voice their opinions on the economic crisis. Demonstrations all over the country confirm this, but some academies are dealing with these activities in a different way.

Art Concern, an event organized by the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) at Taman Ismail Marzuki, Central Jakarta, showed on Wednesday that it is possible to express your feelings differently.

"Not by fighting or demonstrating on the streets, just by using talent," said Emma, a student at IKJ.

Most students of the arts institute supported the event in their own artistic way.

Wearing a Band-Aid, for instance, a student demonstrated that he was hurting. Another student, blindfolded and dressed in a purple garment, walked with his head held high and a stick in his hand, exhibiting power.

Students performed from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Using music, theater, dance, fine arts, film and television, the students expressed their feelings. A senior theater student, Agus Nur Amal, expressed his feelings about the crisis in an excellent way with his one-man show called A Brand New World. He donned different expression for different characters, including a member of the Army and a student.

In the center of the square there was a fine arts exhibition. Students' creative work expressed their concern about the economic crisis. The increasing price of milk, Santa Claus depicted as a savior, stacks of Rp 10,000 notes which turned into Rp 1,000 because of the depreciation of the rupiah, or a keyhole, through which the solution was seen, but there was no key.

During a dance performance, students symbolized being weighed down by the crisis and tried to stop this with their hands. The dance was interrupted by prisoners entering the square, dressed in black clothes, with their mouths taped shut, hands tied, accompanied by the sound of the iron chains that bound their feet.

The students showed that they were not allowed to voice their opinions and that they had no opportunity to develop themselves.

Nine universities were present at the Art Concern, which drew thousands of students. It was a peaceful event with just a few police officers watching. (Marieke Van Heek)