Wardiman opens Art Summit Indonesia
JAKARTA (JP): Art Summit Indonesia 1995 opened at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) in Central Jakarta yesterday in what is billed as one of the largest performing art festivals ever held in the country.
The event, opened by Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro, features 15 world-renowned participants from nine countries: Nucleodanza of Argentina, Urban Sax of France, Weimarer Tanztheater and Banjar Gruppe Berlin of Germany, Ghana Dance Ensemble of Ghana, Chandralekha of India, Slamet Abdul Syukur, Sardono W.Kusumo, Rahayu Supanggah and Bagong Kussudiardja of Indonesia, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Sankai Juku, Kazuo Ohno of Japan, Richard Alston Dance Company of the United Kingdom and the Paul Dresher Ensemble of the U.S.. They will perform either in TIM's three theaters or in Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, both in Central Jakarta. Each group is allocated two evenings of performances.
The event is organized by the Directorate General of Culture of the Ministry of Education and Culture as part of the government's ongoing commemoration of Indonesia's 50th Anniversary of Independence.
Urban Sax
The festival's opening yesterday morning, joined in by 329 performers, was nicely marked by a spectacular show by France's Urban Sax.
Some 50 members of the group, 48 of whom play the saxophone, presented a first taste of contemporary music, which also combined the arts of theater and dance, to the guests which included government senior officers, ambassadors, artists and journalists under a perfect lighting system.
Clad in silver colored costumes resembling toxic waste protection apparel, the group presented sounds and images which, according to the group's director and founder Gilbert Artmann, can be freely interpreted by spectators.
"In a television interview, a child who has just watched our show said that it was a music played by surgeons," Artmann told The Jakarta Post after yesterday morning's show.
The performance was not only musical entertainment but also visual enjoyment. The set included a saxophonist suspended from the ceiling of Graha Bhakti theater by a rope. Somehow he looked like he was swimming. Plastic balloons adorning the theater made it resemble a big aquarium. Later, the atmosphere turned into that of a Paris' sewer with sounds suggesting water running in pipes filling the air.
Artmann said that his music was inspired by the architecture of urban spaces. It is the architecture which usually controls the kind of music that the group will perform. Therefore, observing the venue of a performance is important, he added.
Urban Sax's distinct costumes are not just any costumes, Artmann said.
"They are also very useful because inside the costumes, members of the group put many kinds of items which are important to support their performances, such as bottles of water to produce the aquatic sound or the small lamps to decorate their garments too."
"It is useful but not really practical, and in Jakarta, it's hot," commented Artmann.
Indonesian musician Ireng Maulana said he gave the thumbs up to the group's unique performance.
"It is not only the performance, their music is perfect too and very unified, although one person blows only one note, the tonality of the blow is excellent," he said.
Urban Sax will give another show tonight at 8 p.m. at TIM. (als)