Middle class' foundness for art flourishes

Middle class' foundness for art flourishes

By Franki Raden

JAKARTA (JP): One of the most interesting phenomena in
Indonesia's development is the rise of a class in society
called as the middle class. Economic growth under the New Order
is one explanation for the emergence of this new class. Supported
by their strong buying power, the middle class tends to seek new
experiences and sensations in life. They have become a prominent
part of the urban community who willingly adopt a new lifestyle
imported from western countries.

The middle and upper classes in Indonesia have developed a
unique society of their own. They reside in housing estates or
apartments with marvelous interiors, drive luxurious cars, work
in high-rise buildings, dress up, hang out at pubs and
discotheques, vacation at expensive hotels, dine at international
restaurants, shop at supermarkets and shopping malls, buy
sophisticated audio-visual equipment, join health clubs, play
golf or tennis, obtain credit card memberships and study abroad.

This emerging class has also shown strong potential as
consumers of popular art products, especially those imported from
western countries. Their buying power has helped pop performances
and Hollywood films find a flourishing market here. The
situation, which favors art products, has also led to the
establishment of new concert halls, ballrooms, cineplexs, laser
disc rental stores and performance promoters.

More serious

At the end of the 1980's and early in the 1990's, the middle
class' taste for arts became more serious. In the world of
plastic arts, this improvement in taste has led to new collectors
for creations of such painters as the late Hendra and Affandi, or
Jeihan, Srihadi and Popo Iskandar. The trend is more obvious with
the establishment of art galleries which collect quality art in
Jakarta. In June last year, an art foundation, Yayasan Seni rupa
Indonesia, was established and it immediately organized a
painting exhibition featuring minor works by world maestros.

In the world of theater, the trend is marked with the presence
of Teater Koma which, unlike most other theater groups, is
professionally managed, performs regularly and sells quite
expensive tickets.

New musical groups such as Twilite Orchestra, the Nusantara
Chamber Orchestra and the born again Jakarta's Symphony Orchestra
also support the trend. Jazz music has also been well supported
by this particular class of society. The four day Jak Jazz
festival last month, with tickets selling for Rp 25,000
(US$11.36), was attended by thousands of middle class spectators,
mainly aged between 20 and 40 years old. Such support has also
contributed to the establishment of jazz pubs, including Jamz and
Blue Note in Jakarta.

The performances by Twilite Orchestra, whose music is more pop
than classical, and whose tickets range from Rp 150,000 to Rp
250,000, attracted about 1,000 to 3,000 middle class people. Its
last concert at Puri Agung, Sahid Jaya Hotel in December received
heaps of applause from the audience although most of the
repertoire was classical. Twilite often plays at parties, both
corporate and individual, and marriage parties. Even in developed
countries, such a thing rarely occurs since it takes huge funds
to ask an orchestra to perform. Twilite Orchestra surely has
indirectly benefited from the people's passion for great opera
singers such as Pavarotti, which was shown in the electronic
media, and for the performances of famous foreign orchestras in
Indonesia.

Based on these facts, it's no wonder that 10,000 Indonesians
spent at least Rp 1 million to attend a Michael Jackson concert
in Singapore in 1993. Many Indonesians were also willing to spend
between Rp 250,000 and Rp 1.5 million for a ticket to Pavarotti's
concert, also in Singapore.

The development of a taste for art of this particular class
can be also seen from the large number of people who attended the
Sting concert at the Jakarta Convention Center and the six-day
performance of Chick Corea at Jamz in November. The ability of
Jakarta's Symphony Orchestra and Nusantara Chamber Orchestra to
continuously feature classical music in performances that cost
about Rp 30,0000 per person is another indication of increased
demand.

Producers like Aquarius, for example, didn't hesitate to
record experimental jazz music by the Krakatau group.

Contemporary arts

Progressive contemporary arts have also been touched. A
contemporary Indonesian-English music concert, performed by STSI
Surakarta of Indonesia and Evelyn Glennie of England at the
Jakarta Convention Center in June 1993, was crowded by people who
bought Rp 250,000 to Rp 2.5 million tickets.

A taste for contemporary arts has also allowed The Stage, a
cafe in the basement of Ratu Plaza in South Jakarta, to be a
fixed venue for progressive arts. Among the Indonesian musicians
who performed at the cafe in 1993 were Deddy Satya, Harry Roesli,
Slamet Abdul Sjukur and Trisuci Kamal.

A contemporary music concert, Suita, ran for two days at
Jakarta's Gedung Kesenian in 1992. Tickets sold for Rp 20,000 an
it was considered the very successful in regard to the size of
the audience and production organization. The concert was
featured in conjunction with Gedung Kesenian's annual
international arts festival, The Jakarta Performing Arts. An
international dance festival, called Indonesia's Dance Festival,
takes place every year at Gedung Kesenian and Taman Ismail
Marzuki arts center. It is mainly attended by the middle class.
The modern (pop) dance began entertaining the young middle class
in the early 1980's. Guruh Soekarnoputra, with his Swara
Mahardhika, is one of the developing pioneers of this form of
art.

Business

The middle and upper class' passion for art activities has not
escaped the attention of business circles. Beginning last year,
the arts have been used to advertise consumer goods targeted at
the middle class. A big real estate company owned by tycoon
Ciputra, for example, has made use of art as a selling point for
its new housing complex. Its slogan is "city of arts".

Businesses are manipulating art codes into the code for a
middle class lifestyle. This is something that already exists in
traditional Indonesian society where art is considered a vital
tool for the social reproduction process. The difference is
traditional society uses its own products, keeping its cultural
life independent. The products used by Indonesia's new middle
class is imported from the west, so this segment of society is
trapped in a consumptive urban society. And, in turn, this middle
class society has led the working class to adapt a consumptive
lifestyle and to depend on western art products. As a result, the
hegemony of western culture in Indonesian culture will be
stronger.

If Indonesians, especially the middle class, do not make an
effort to balance the situation, Indonesia will become nothing
but a potential market for western cultural products.