JP/xx/YHELLY

JP/xx/YHELLY

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RI 2005 performing arts scene

Helly Minarti
Contributor/Jakarta

Another year has passed for Indonesia's performing arts, but with
a staggering rise in poverty and corruption, plus the oil crisis
overshadowing the country throughout the year, the government
continues to keep the arts at arm's length.

But strangely, during this tumultuous year, a combination of
things took place in the cultural sphere: from the usual
performances, festivals and arts market up to the national
congress of the arts.

However, the potential of the arts in general still stops at
politicians' rhetoric.

Thus, the performing arts, like any other art form in
Indonesia, are viewed as an unnecessary frill by the government.

The stubbornness it took to hold the Indonesian Performing
Arts Market (IPAM) in Bali last June, is a perfect example
of how the government does not have any knowledge about the
local, let alone global, arts scene.

Hence, putting the first (local) into the context of the
second (global) is still a big problem.

The IPAM seems to follow the strategies of developed
countries, such as Australia (Adelaide Arts Market), Japan (Tokyo
Arts Market) and Singapore (Asian Arts Marts -- held biennially
since 2002).

While the national cultural policy is yet to be drafted, and
the arts infrastructure is still in very poor condition, it is
laughable to hold a so-called "international arts market",
predictably resulting in a disorganized, non-strategic event.

The Rp 600 million spent for this event would have been better
spent on arts infrastructure and supporting budding artists and
arts managers. Instead, local artists, who dreamed of performing
abroad, ended up being disappointed by the poor quality of
management by the organizers.

In the capital, the Jakarta Arts Council (DKJ) became both a
subject of gossip in arts circles as well as public scrutiny.

Earlier this year, some artists printed pamphlets, demanding
that the DKJ be audited by a public accountant.

Corruption is indeed still rampant, not only in the local
government arts body in Jakarta, but also local governments
across Indonesia.

Outrageously marked-up projects and the "blank" receipts that
commissioned artists have to sign -- meaning that
they will receive only a small amount of the allocated funding
they should have received otherwise -- remain "normal" practices.

While the Meeting of Women's Theater Playwrights and Directors
held by the DKJ sounded promising, it turned out to
lack critical discourse and should have focused on a specific
theme.

The Arts Suku performances of four groups from tribes living
in remote areas of Indonesia ignored the question of how to
present a tribal culture to a city audience without taking it out
of context.

Another program, Koreografer Lintas Generasi (Inter-Generation
Choreographers) in November re-introduced the after-performance
discussion, inviting two critics to review the works of 15
choreographers.

The tension stemming from this discussion revealed the
critical situation of how deeply uncritical contemporary dance
has become.

Meanwhile, the loose, rather dubious curatorial framework of
the event was explained away by the organizers as being the
locating of choreographers in the country rather than
a presentation of strands of the contemporary dance scene.

Funnily enough, the DKJ has not put together any suitable
programs for supporting artistic creation -- both in terms of
funding and training.

Lastly on the DKJ, its initiative to hold a national
conference by inviting all arts councils across Indonesia to
Papua in August, was easily read as a political move --
unfortunately, in the tradition of the New Order, centralized,
mobilizing-all spirit -- of some individuals who tried to lobby
the founders of the Central Arts Council.

The fact that many of these provincial arts councils are non-
active, let alone credible before their main stakeholders (the
arts community) raised a question as to how this bunch of
bureaucrats -- often full of personal bias and highly incapable
in arts management and policy-making -- could facilitate the arts
community they serve, as they should function.

Feedback was bountiful, judging from the writing in the mass
media by artists, critics, curators and even arts managers -- but
this was not treated as input at all.

On the other hand, regional autonomy helps stimulate
localities in managing arts events across provinces. The biennial
Pasar Tari Kontemporer -- now in its fourth year -- was held
again in Riau, Pekanbaru in late August.

A big arts festival in Surabaya in June seemed to balance the
chockablock schedule of festivals in the capital -- one organized
by the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta/GKJ, overlapping with the French
Spring Festival organized by the French Cultural Center,
overshadowing the badly promoted Solo Frontier Festival -- all in
the same month.

Also in June was the international premier of Waktu Batu III
(Stone Age III), a play by Yogyakarta-based Teater Garasi, in the
House of World Cultures in Berlin.

The next challenge is how to present Indonesian artists' work
outside the confines of venues set aside for "world culture" (or
interpretively non-Western cultures).

The Arts Congress (Kongres Kesenian) was held (the last was 10
years ago) again this year in Jakarta. Unfortunately, it ended in
havoc rather than producing some ideas for the arts world in
Indonesia.

The usually hectic schedule of before and after Lebaran arts
performances was repeated again this year in Jakarta --
highlighting the need for arts managers (and the city government)
to come together to regulate the future cultural agenda.

In December alone, Robert Wilson's I La Galigo
(www.ilagaligo.com), premiered in the country from Dec. 10
through Dec. 12; and the Festival of World Music (also featuring
Rahayu Supanggah, I La Galigo's music director) was held at the
GKJ. The international show was inspired by Sureq Galigo, a 14th
century epic poem, the story of which originated with the Bugis
from South Sulawesi.

The production caused a stir two years ago when the renowned
Wilson came to Indonesia to audition local artists. It then
premiered at Singapore's Esplanade, and has toured the world bar
its home country.

These two coincided with the annual Jakarta International Film
Festival (Jiffest).

Last but not least is the state of Taman Ismail Marzuki
(Jakarta Arts Center).

Starting life as the yardstick of the nation's cultural life
in the 1970s, TIM has become the mockery of the arts crowd
due to its old-style management and allegedly corruption-prone
building project.

The small theater -- which has already been "renovated" more
than once -- is designed so awkwardly that the audience is
inconvenienced.

Did they not consult a theater designer before they laid the
foundations?

While the main theater's construction deadline -- I am losing
track of how many years it has taken so far to build this
supposedly prime venue for performing arts in the country -- gets
further and further away.

Compared to the contemporary space of the Kuala Lumpur
Performing Arts Center -- which only took a year to build -- TIM
appears to be a never-ending construction project, not to mention
its antiquated services for both artists and audiences.

At the very least, the GKJ took phone reservations -- an
impossibility apparently for TIM's Graha Bhakti Budaya management
-- although the box office is always staffed by at least three
people on performance nights.