Performing: More than just for show

JAKARTA (JP): Performing good quality art is no longer enough. The most important thing is that the artists should be able to reach audiences through their work, even collaborative pieces made with foreign counterparts -- a common phenomenon in the performing arts.

This opinion was expressed by dance critic and member of the Third Art Summit Indonesia 2001 artistic board Sal Murgiyanto during a media conference on Tuesday regarding the upcoming international seminar on contemporary performing arts to be held from Sept. 14 to Sept. 16 at Hotel Indonesia in Central Jakarta.

The dean of the Jakarta Arts Institute's School of Performing Arts urged Indonesian artists to improve their communication and expression skills to prevent the exploitation of local arts when performing collaborative works. He also insisted that good collaborative works show equality among the artists' involved.

"If there's no equality then there will be exploitation of one another. Such situations might happen due to the lack of communication skills among those involved. And most Indonesian artists, although they stage good quality performances, are so poor in the skill (of communicating)," Sal said.

Citing an example of Indonesian artists' lack of communication skills, he said that during the season of a certain collaborative show in Australia, it was always the foreign counterparts who talked to members of the press. "In this case, there could be misinterpretation," Sal said.

Besides equality, he also expressed the need to share expertise and knowledge among the artists involved in collaborative processes.

Intensive collaborative processes between Indonesian artists and foreign counterparts, according to artist Rahayu Supanggah, are still rare.

"In fact, a long time is needed to create a good collaborative piece. The process might take about three to five years since it is not only about working together, but also respect for each other's cultures," Rahayu said.

He also lamented the existence of attitudes asserting inferiority toward anything from the West within the art world. "In this case, sometimes we do not have enough information about the groups that are more suitable to work with," Rahayu said.

Collaborations do not necessarily mean an east-meets-west kind of thing. In fact, it can also be east-meets-east, as Japanese artists have undertaken with their Asian counterparts.

Indonesian artists, according to the seminar's chair Saini K.M, should enrich themselves by following current theoretical discourses.

"Actually, we have lots of art forms, but there's a lack of theoretical discourse about them. Once a Japanese person researching Indonesian arts faced problems finding any theory despite the presence of an abundance of art forms," he said.

Saini believes that discourse plays an important role, particularly with the challenges of multiculturalism. Without discussion and debate, he said, there would be less reflection on what was happening within society.

The upcoming seminar, he said, was expected to bridge the gap between theory and art forms. The event is also expected to conceptually map situations, problems and challenges created by multicultural encounters and collaborations.

Local experts and international speakers from Australia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States will present their views during the seminar.

The seminar is expected to enhance awareness and understanding among the nations involved, including their respective artists and audience. (ind)