JP/18/BIENNL
JP/18/BIENNL
Biennale Jogja expresses concern over the city's heritage
Sri Wahyuni
The Jakarta Post/Yogyakarta
Biennale Jogja 2005, Yogyakarta's biggest visual art event,
kicked off last week with a focus on the preservation of the
city's heritage sites, which are disappearing at an alarming rate
and a call to preserve them for the benefit of the people and
future generations.
As such, instead of taking place at only one venue as was
always the case previously, it is now taking place at 14
different heritage sites throughout the historical city of
Yogyakarta.
The sites range from the sacred to the profane, from a study
or office to a cultural site or tourist resort, which are in the
main between 50 years to 100 years old.
Among them are the compound of the ancient grand mosque of
Masjid Agung in Kotagede and St. Yusuf Church in Bintaran, the
old cigar factory PD Tarumartani, Benteng Vredeburg Museum, Sagan
neighborhood and Nitiprayan cultural village.
"We have the dream that someday artworks will become the
heritage sites," one of the biennale's curators Mikke Susanto
said.
Another curator of the biennale, Eko Prawoto, said that an art
event indeed needed to be linked to the life of the city, which
was currently facing a clash between tradition and modernism that
had become a fight between the opposing sides for the city's
public spaces.
Yogyakarta, according to Eko, is just like any other city in
the world in terms of heritage preservation. The intensive
physical development that the city is experiencing is happening
at the cost of its precious heritage sites.
"Some of the old buildings that have a significant
contribution to the city's history are now just history," said
Eko, who is also an architect and a lecturer at Yogyakarta-based
Duta Wacana Christian University.
Unless something is done about it, he said, the city would
experience what he called cultural amnesia. The city would lose
its roots for cultural development.
"Art, in this case, can function to open people's awareness.
Through an art event we can reintroduce our tradition to the
younger generation so that they can learn something from the
past," Eko said.
Some of the 118 individual and group works of both domestic
and international artists participating in the biennale themed:
Di Sini dan Kini (Here and Now), indeed give a clear message.
Installation work The Last Stars in the Night (2005) by
Canadian artist Deborah J Nolan is an example.
Comprising of a main installation (90 x 90 centimeters square,
printed map with lights, acrylic, silver paint) and street
installations (boxes of 13 x 9.5 x 7.5 centimeters each with
acrylic, battery-run lights, mixed media), the work carries a
message for the public to appreciate Yogyakarta's cultural
heritage.
The boxes are installed in 40 different spots throughout
Yogyakarta that represent the city's cultural icons such as
traditional street eatery angkringan, traditional house, and the
natural heritage of the rare Tanjung trees.
According to the artist, her work explores the issue of
heritage by forming particular constellations of stars, namely
Sagittarius (the archer) and Corona Australis (the constellation
of finding the meaning of life).
Each of the boxes carries a different statement or question
that are actually a call to think about the respective heritage
sites that are neither monumental nor written in textbooks on
Indonesian history, and how history has been recorded through the
site.
"It is our consciousness of the past and now that will inspire
and help us act responsibly for the future,' wrote Nolan about
her work.
Another example comes from the works of Dutch artist Frank van
den Ham that are exhibited at the hall of the Dutch cultural
center Karta Pustaka Yogyakarta.
Comprising of two pieces of glassworks, the artworks are meant
to remind people of the importance of looking back at the past to
proceed to the future.
"If we are smart, we will always look back at the past. There
is always something that we can learn from the past," Van den Ham
said.
Officially opened by wayang artist Sigit Sukasman, who was
awarded the 2005 lifetime achievement award by the biennale's
organizing committee, Biennale Jogja 2005 will run until Dec. 22.
Chairwoman of the organizing committee Anggi Minarni said the
committee initially received 312 proposals of works for the
biennale and had also invited 70 foreign artists to take part in
the event.
However, after selection by the biennale's team of three
curators (the other curator is Dwi Marianto of the Indonesian
Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta), only 118 individual and group
visual art works were selected to be exhibited.
They comprise 32 paintings, 25 installation works and 23
sculptures. The rest are performance arts, textile works, video
art, ceramic works, graphic art, graphic designs, public art,
digital printed arts, a photo work, and a glasswork.
A series of supporting discussions and performances involving
people of various backgrounds are also being held to make the
biennale more meaningful to the community.
Foreign participating artists come from Japan, Canada,
Liechtenstein, Australia, Malaysia and the Netherlands. National
participants are from Yogyakarta, Bali, Jakarta, West Java,
Central Java, East Java, and Kalimantan.
Biennale Jogja was first held in 1988. This year's is the 8th.
The previous biennials were held in 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1999,
and 2003.
There was no biennale held in 2001. This was mostly due to the
economic crisis and the implementation of a new government
regulation on regional autonomy that changed the structural
position of the government institution Taman Budaya Yogyakarta
(TBY) cultural center that was tasked with organizing the event.
TBY had taken the main role as the organizer of the biennale
up until 1999. However, since 2003 it has played the role of
facilitator.