What a performance! Challenging nights at TUK

What a performance! Challenging nights at TUK

By Rudy Madanir

JAKARTA (JP); When the master of ceremonies welcomed Chinese
artist Ma Liu Ming to perform before a packed crowd at Teater
Utan Kayu, the organizer of the Jakarta International Performance
Arts Festival (JIPAF) distributed small pieces of paper to the
audience.

It was noisy for awhile as many people were shocked that the
paper turned out to be quite a "challenging" invitation.

"You are invited to have your photo taken, clothed or nude,
with Fen Ma Liu Ming," it read in English.

As soon as the lights dimmed, the totally naked artist
appeared with his hermaphrodite look of a beautiful face much
like a woman's, and long hair cascading down his male body.

Calmly, he proceeded to check a prepared camera ready for 36
shots, then he sat comfortably on a couch covered with black
fabric.

Soon after he closed his eyes, people rushed to have a turn at
this rare photo opportunity. Men and women, old and young -- in
groups or as individuals -- took turns choosing different poses
and attitudes.

A gray-haired elderly woman took a seat next to the artist,
giving him a motherly hug and smiling widely. The scene was full
of laughter.

A group of women and men of different ages posed elegantly
with the nude artist as if they were taking a picture for a
family album.

Others were also posing in interesting ways, including a man
who was proudly showing his genitals, a man who put a condom onto
the artist's genitals and a man with his face covered pointing
his two fingers to the artist's head as if he was trying to shoot
him.

To explore people's reactions toward the performance is the
aim of his work, said Ma Liu Ming, who has done the same
performance in 14 different countries, each with its own culture
and problems.

"Not knowing what's going to happen next makes the exploration
interesting for all people involved in the performance and the
performance itself," he said.

About the meaning of his art, he said that it presents an
abnormal condition to viewers and reveals harmony and
contradiction in an effort to describe an actual social reality.

Ironically, the artist has never done the performance publicly
in his homeland of China, where he faces a constant question from
society of whether he is a man or a woman just because of his
long hair. This notably becomes the inspiration of his
performance.

Not only Chinese artists, but also several others from among
the 25 local and foreign artists, used their naked bodies to
express art in the festival that lasted from March 2 until March
4.

In return, Jakarta's audiences showed their enthusiasm night
after night by packing the theater which has a capacity for 100
people. Many who did not get a seat inside massed in front of a
TV monitor outside.

Considering some unfamiliar themes and often "radical"
expressions of some of the artists, the small theater of Utan
Kayu (TUK) became a perfect place to test the responses of
Jakarta's audiences.

JIPAF coordinator Arahmaiani said the nudity used in some
performances made the organizer choose TUK as the festival venue
over alternative places with larger capacities, such as Taman
Ismail Marzuki cultural center.

She claimed the festival was quite successful judging from the
size of the crowds and their enthusiastic responses.

For performance art, response is not enough by showing a long
applause, as is the common practice in performing art. More
importantly, it is the artist's interaction with the audience or
involving people in the performance which gives a better
understanding about the theme or message a performance artist is
trying to convey.

Many artists, besides Ma Liu Ming, involved the audience
effectively in their performance, ranging from as simple as
waving paper flags in Iwan Wijono's Liberalism, Celebration and
Speech to kissing the Japanese female artist Mamiko Kawabata in
her performance titled Kiss Me Please.

Another Japanese artist, Akiko Izumi, in her Life in the Cage,
successfully persuaded five men to crawl everywhere with her.

However, not all efforts to involve people got a positive
response from the audience.

Singaporean artist Jason Lim, in his work titled Foreign
Talent, put white powder all over his almost naked body. While
dancing, he was not only trying to pour powder on the audience,
but also trying to touch and kiss some people.

In response, he got a karate kick to his buttocks from a
Japanese woman, while some others avoided him by leaving the
room. The few people who remained were saved by the organizer,
who hugged the artist to stop his performance.

Nobody has hard feelings after the "performance" as the theme
and expression is free in performance art. Consequently, the art
produced by some performances can be so individual to be
appreciated that some people might have difficulties
understanding performance art.

A short speech explaining what a performance is all about
could help people to understand better, or even to cry together
with the artist. That was the case of Happy Japan, performed by
Sinichi Arai.

He explained to the audience that his performance was in
protest of the Japanese government, which launched propaganda in
the form of a comic book denying accusations of propagating sex
slavery during the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia. The
book has sold a half million copies so far.

Appearing without clothes and only covering his genitals with
a small towel sporting the name of a famous Japanese stationery,
he squatted as if he was defecating on a square piece of white
fabric on the floor.

While singing the Japanese national anthem Kimigayo, he
pressed a plastic tube containing red cream from just below his
buttocks, as if he was excreting red human waste.

Using his bare buttocks on the red "waste", he painted a full
circle in the middle of the white square. It turned out to be a
copy of the Japanese national flag, which he later hung on the
wall.

He then tore out each page of the comic book, giving some of
the pages to the audience and keeping some to put in his mouth to
chew on. Then he shouted "happy Japan".

As he continued tearing the comic's pages, more and more
people received them and tried to read what was written. At the
same time, the accumulation of paper in his mouth blocked his
emotional speech, making his voice hoarse before it disappeared
entirely inside his throat.

The performance ended when his mouth could only produce a deep
mumble, unable to utter a single word, while tears ran down his
angry face.

Undoubtedly no one watching the performance could
misunderstand the artist's suffering.

However, not all the messages or themes of every performance
are as vivid and clear as Happy Japan. Many are still difficult
to absorb by Jakarta's audiences. It is probably caused by
language and cultural barriers, or perhaps the concepts are too
individual to be understood by a large audience.

At least Jakarta theatergoers have been given a broader
outlook by this inaugural festival. Let's wait for the next one
two years from now.