Performing arts intentive, but still lack adequate support
Performing arts intentive, but still lack adequate support
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.