Amor Fati by Roy Voragen

exhibition at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space

2012-01-23T15:52:00.001+07:00

Yudi Yudoyoko's solo exhibition at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space opens on the 27th.

exhibition at ruru gallery, Jakarta

2012-01-16T18:28:00.002+07:00

A collaborative exhibition and a series of talks: ruangrupa and the Indonesian Visual Art Archive.

art infrastructure in Indonesia

2012-01-16T15:33:00.004+07:00

Christine Clark argues that Indonesia lacks a state-sponsored public infrastructure for the arts. Many in Indonesia consider this a problem, curator Rizky Zaelani, for example, wrote: “When the state’s bureaucracy is not – or, perhaps, not yet – able to organize its wealth so that it can support and develop infrastructures for the art, the ‘fate’ of the art development cannot be supported by strong and capable institutions. As a result, various artistic events are held with neither coordination nor long-term plans.” But that is far too fatalistic, why wait for the state? Clark argues that Indonesia doesn’t need to copy the infrastructure models that have proven to be successful in the West. Organizations like ruangrupa in Jakarta (ruangrupa organizes biannually Ok. Video Festival, I published a review in C-Arts Magazine, see here), Common Room Networks Foundation in Bandung and Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarta have proven to be so successful that they do they do more than merely fill the gap left by the state. However, she concludes that without a state-sponsored public infrastructure for the arts the development of contemporary art in Indonesia will always remain problematic. This conclusion doesn’t follow from her premises, and the only support she provides is that the current Indonesian art world is characterized by decentralization. Again, that doesn’t support her conclusion (it could, if she would replace ‘decentralization’ by ‘fragmentation’). Now she seems to say that Indonesia should in fact follow the models that have proven to be successful in the West. It remains a question whether the West provides a singular model – there is a huge difference between, for instance, the U.S. and Belgium (and even between the language communities within Belgium). And the nation-state model she seems to prefer does not come with neutrality (the Netherlands are a case in point, the current right-wing government slashed its budget for the arts and as a consequence museums, theatre and dance companies, and postgraduate educational institutes have to close or at least drastically slim down). Finally, an infrastructure for the arts could also be institutionalized from the bottom-up through co-ordination between the diverse art and cultural organizations in Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta (after all, MoMA in NY was a private initiative). Among many other things, it requires developing diverse formats of revenue models for financial sustainability (especially important now a dependence on foreign donors is no longer prudent due to the global financial crisis). One more point, the term ‘absentee state’ in reference to the arts in Indonesia is an exaggeration. Approximately one third of the budget of the Yogyakarta Biennale came from the state. The Jakarta Biennale is partly and indirectly state funded as well through the Jakarta Arts Council (DKJ). And all four venues at the two biennales are state-owned: the National Gallery and the Jakarta Art Center Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) for the Jakarta Biennale, and the National Museum of Yogyakarta and Taman Budaya for the Yogyakarta Biennale. TIM is not only state-owned, it was intended by the state to function for the arts, another example is Gallery Soemardja at the campus of ITB in Bandung (the National Gallery and Taman Budaya are colonial buildings, and the National Museum of Yogyakarta used to be a high school), from which we should conclude that the state used to have policies for the arts. Beside buildings and funding, sustainability is also about ideas. It is highly problematic that there is not yet a department of art history at an Indonesian university (which has priority over starting programs on curatorial practice or art management tailored to local needs instead of sending aspiring curators and art managers overseas for such programs).

Christine Clark, “Building a New Arts Infrastructure, Non-State Foundations in Asia;” http://www.aaa.org.hk/newsletter_detail.aspx?newsletter_id=494

Christine Clark, “When the alternative becomes the mainstream, operating globally without national infrastructure,” in 15 years Cemeti Art House, Exploring Vacuum (Yogyakarta, Cemeti Art House, 2003): 122-124.

Rizky Zaelani, “Interpellation: Notes on a common language of comparison in international art events,” Interpellation, CP Biennale 2003 catalog (Jakarta: CP Foundation, 2003); http://biennale.cp-foundation.org/2003/essays02.html

curatorial practice in Indonesia

2012-01-16T14:39:00.001+07:00

June Yap: “As Agung Hujatnikajennong, curator in Bandung at the Selasar Sunaryo Art Space and the [2009] Jakarta Biennale, suggests, curatorial practice depends on networks […]. This has also begun to grow problematic in Indonesia, in that ‘the network is much determined by arbitrary connections, that all kinds of interests may overlap, and some curators are not able to define their own positions so as to gain a level of autonomy and professionalism. Since the boom of the art market in Indonesia, the Indonesian curator has been identified with the extension of the commercial institution's interest, such as with galleries or auction houses’.”

In a discussion with Tony Godfrey for Broadsheet, Agung says that “the notion of curatorial practice has always been like a free-floating job [in Indonesia].”

What is Agung’s own position in this?

June Yap, “Curatorial connections, Southeast Asia: Three panels, two books;” http://www.aaa.org.hk/newsletter_detail.aspx?newsletter_id=636&newslettertype=archive

Tony Godfrey, “Ethics and politics of curating in Southeast Asia,” Broadsheet 40, no.1 (2010), 56-59; http://www.cacsa.org.au/Broadsheet/Current/40_1/BS_40_1.html

biennales as temporary museums for contemporary art

2012-01-16T10:07:00.001+07:00

Kate Fowle writes that biennales “could act as a testing ground for artists and a barometer for the development of art practice.” However, because Indonesia lacks art museums that collect and preserve art works, and by doing so put these works in context, biennales could offer this context and serve as temporary museums for contemporary art and provide a context by not only looking forward but also by looking back (thus: not only focusing on the young, the hip & the talented, which serves the art market but doesn’t provide any context).

Kate Fowle, “Who Cares? Understanding the Role of the Curator Today,” in Cautionary Tales, eds. Steven rand and Heather Kouris (New York: Apex Art, 2007), 15.

wall texts and the 2011 Jakarta Biennale

2012-01-16T10:04:00.000+07:00

The chaotic display of wall texts - none at all, containing only minimal information (name of the artist and title of the work) or wrong translations (and perhaps there were also wall texts attached to the wrong art works) - at the 2011 Jakarta Biennale was certainly a major annoyance. However, this raises a question: since when has it been custom to have extensive wall texts interpreting the displayed works at art exhibitions and to see these texts as necessary? The works by Rembrandt, Van Gogh en Mondrian - to name the three most important artists from Dutch art history - are not accompanied by extensive wall texts (at least, so far as I recall). Are the works by these artists - unlike contemporary art works - considered self-explanatory?

exhibition at Salihara, Jakarta

2012-01-16T09:55:00.001+07:00

See here for more info.

52 Wednesdays photo exhibition at Common Room

2012-01-14T11:43:00.001+07:00

See here for more info.

syncope

2012-01-03T15:47:00.002+07:00

The market and the arts in Southeast Asia

2012-01-02T14:02:00.001+07:00

Tony Godfrey (Sotheby’s Institute of Art) on art in Southeast Asia: “What is changing in this area for art? What does the future hold? One thing that struck me when I moved here […] was the paucity of state support, the dominance of the market and the prevalence of speculation in that market. Working as you do as curators or critics in this context how do you avoid being compromised? Can we begin by addressing this question?”

Ro/Ma Arts Intermediaries wishes you a creative 2012!

2012-01-01T12:39:00.002+07:00

Ro/Ma Arts Intermediaries

wishes you a creative 2012!

Ro/Ma Arts Intermediaries is a think tank that promotes passionate, ambitious and focused ways of producing, presenting and experiencing the diverse forms of arts from Indonesia. We give keen attention to art practices, forms of presentation and experiencing the arts through various means: for example, workshops, discussions and research on such topics as art practices, management, presentation, art criticism, funding, education, audience engagement, and etcetera, which will result in publications and exhibitions. RoMa Arts Intermediaries intersects with the many already existing art institutions: (semi-)state-run institutions, commercial galleries, private museums, artist initiative spaces, and etcetera. We are ready to engage with the members of these organizations as intermediaries to promote fertile interaction between these spaces and their audiences.

Warm regards,

Ro/Ma Arts Intermediaries

Martha Soemantri and Roy Voragen

Email: romarts.int@gmail.com

id theft

2011-12-20T19:07:00.000+07:00

S. Teddy D. - Mindscape - exhibition at Kendra gallery, Bali

2011-12-18T17:26:00.000+07:00

White elephant art vs. termite art

2011-12-14T10:49:00.001+07:00

The most inclusive description of the art is, that, termite-like, it feels its way through walls of particularization, with no sign that the artist has any object in mind other than eating away the immediate boundaries of his art, and turning these boundaries into conditions of the next achievement.

Manny Farber (1962)

The Inheritance III

2011-12-13T17:56:00.001+07:00

The Inheritance III by Bandung-based artist R.E.Hartanto - better known as Tanto - for an exhibition in Singapore (see here for a review).

waste land

2011-12-09T18:59:00.000+07:00

the future of science is art

2011-12-08T15:40:00.001+07:00

Randy Jarell: "It is the contradictions in works of art which make them to represent us - as logical and methodical generalizations cannot - our world and our selves, which are so full of contradictions."

symbolic capital

2011-12-08T15:39:00.000+07:00

Hans Haacke (German-American artist): "Contrary to Kant's dictum of ‘disinterested pleasure’, the arts are not ideologically neutral. They are, in fact, one of the many arenas where conflicting ideas about who we are, and what our social relations should be, are pitted against each other. Encoded in cultural productions are interests, beliefs, and goals. And, in turn, they affect what is at stake for us, what we believe, and what we strive for."

relevance of conceptual art

2011-12-08T15:38:00.000+07:00

Boris Groys: “Conceptual artists shifted the emphasis of artmaking away from static, individual objects toward the presentation of new relationships in space and time. These relationships could be purely spatial, but also logical and political. They could be relationships among things, texts, and photo-documents, but could also involve performances, happenings, films, and videos—all of which were shown inside the same installation space. In other words, conceptual art can be characterized as installation art—as a shift from the exhibition space presenting individual, disconnected objects to a holistic exhibition space in which the relations between objects are the basis of the artwork.” And “conceptual art taught us to see form as a poetic instrument of communication rather than an object of contemplation.”

producing/presenting art

2011-12-08T15:36:00.000+07:00

Boris Groys: “Today, there is no longer any ‘ontological’ difference between making art and displaying art. In the context of contemporary art, to make art is to show things as art. So the question arises: is it possible, and, if so, how is it possible to differentiate between the role of the artist and that of the curator when there is no difference between art’s production and exhibition? Now, I would argue that this distinction is still possible.” And: “The installation transforms the empty, neutral, public space into an individual artwork—and it invites the visitor to experience this space as the holistic, totalizing space of an artwork. Anything included in such a space becomes a part of the artwork simply because it is placed inside this space.” And: “artistic installation [is] the act of art production [which] coincides with the act of its presentation”

curator as author?

2011-12-08T15:34:00.001+07:00

Hans Ulrich Obrist: "I don't believe that the curator is an artist. I was very inspired by Harald Szeemann, who is obviously one of my great heroes. Harald had a signature, and things had to function within the signature of his exhibitions. He is the auteur, but that has never been my way to work. Everything in my shows is done by an artist. The more I can disappear, the less my signature is there, the better it is. Douglas Gordon will find the title, an artist will design the catalogue, Richard Hamilton will do the poster. If it is a performance, it's a performance that has always to do with someone else, or for someone else."

Seminar Invitation: Funding strategies in managing art and cultural organizations

2011-12-05T15:34:00.000+07:00

Towards Financial Sustainability

Funding strategies in managing art and cultural organizations

Organized by RoMa Arts

in collaboration with Selasar Sunaryo Art Space

Purpose: The aim of this seminar is to exchange ideas on how to make art and cultural organizations financially sustainable. Through presentations and discussion we can learn from each other’s successes and failures in managing art and cultural organizations, which could lead to structural improvements that, in turn, could make art and cultural organizations self-sustainable in the future.

Key questions:

1. What aspects of an organizational strategy and plan should be in place before developing a funding strategy?

2. What does it actually mean to develop and have a funding strategy? For example, how to apply for grants? What are the (likely) administrative and managerial implications when grants are received?

3. What are the different ways to become financially sustainable? For example, grants from donors (foreign as well as domestic), sponsorships, merchandising, membership, sales, government subsidies (monetary as well as in kind, for example wavering of rental fee or volunteers)

Speakers:

John McGlynn – Lontar Foundation (founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees); http://www.lontar.org/and http://www.iias.nl/the-newsletter/article/lontar-found-translation

Topic: ABCs on Sustainability (for non profit organization in Indonesia)

Audrey Wong – The Substation, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore; http://www.substation.org/ and http://www.lasalle.edu.sg/index.php/about-us/faculty-members/775

Gustaff H. Iskandar – Common Room Networks Foundation (founder and Director);

http://commonroom.info/

Moderated by Roy Voragen

When: Saturday, December 10, 2011

2-5pm (including coffee break)

Where:

Selasar Sunaryo Art Space

Bale Handap

Bukit Pakar Timur No.100, Bandung

http://www.selasarsunaryo.com/

Fee: 75,000Rp/person (paid in cash at venue)

Please RSVP by 6 December 2011, due to limited seating of 30 to romarts.int@gmail.com by stating your name, organization, job title and phone number.

Please forward this e-mail to those you think will be interested in the topic of the seminar. Thank you very much.

RoMa Arts is a think tank that promotes passionate, ambitious and focused ways of producing, presenting and experiencing the diverse forms of arts from Indonesia. We give keen attention to art practices, forms of presentation and experiencing the arts through various means: for example, workshops, discussions and research on such topics as art practices, management, presentation, art criticism, funding, education, audience engagement, and etcetera, which will result in publications and exhibitions. RoMa Arts intersects with the many already existing art institutions: (semi-)state-run institutions, commercial galleries, private museums, artist initiative spaces, and etcetera. We are ready to engage with the members of these organizations as intermediaries to promote fertile interaction between these spaces and their audiences.

Selasar Sunaryo Art Space (SSAS) aims to support and contribute to the development of arts and culture in Indonesia. SSAS delivers a diverse and accessible program for the enjoyment of locals and visitors, and contributes locally and nationally to a living culture in Indonesia. The focus of the program is contemporary art, as well as visual culture more broadly: design, craft, film/video, photography and architecture. Aside from presenting regular exhibitions of the permanent collection, SSAS holds solo or group exhibitions by emerging and established artists; workshops and discussions; artist residencies; a children's program; performing arts programs such as concerts and theatre, and other activities selected by the Curatorial Board. SSAS initiates opportunities for national and international cooperation and networking with artists, curators, critics, researchers, conservators and all of those who are interested in public education through arts and cultural activities.

deadline fever

2011-11-21T17:27:00.000+07:00

Poet Shop

2011-11-02T11:49:00.001+07:00

New exhibition by video artist Krisna Murti.

CCTV art

2011-11-02T11:45:00.002+07:00

Bram Tackenberg has an exhibition at Projekt072 (opening is November 13).

snapshots from Hong Kong

2011-10-26T19:11:00.023+07:00

OK. Video Festival in Jakarta

2011-10-02T11:43:00.001+07:00

sinking solids

2011-09-29T22:05:00.000+07:00

a silent note

2011-09-28T18:44:00.000+07:00

video OUT @ dia.lo.gue. art space

2011-09-28T10:34:00.001+07:00

say (no) more

2011-09-27T16:37:00.001+07:00

sayang

2011-09-21T14:03:00.000+07:00

tormented

2011-09-21T14:02:00.001+07:00

predicament

2011-09-13T14:12:00.000+07:00

photo exhibition in Bandung: 25 years after Chernobyl

2011-09-10T09:46:00.000+07:00

adulterated

2011-09-06T21:49:00.002+07:00

guttered out

2011-08-29T19:43:00.000+07:00

OK. Video Festival

2011-08-28T19:20:00.002+07:00

OK. Video Festival is organized by ruangrupa. My preview essay will appear in the next issue of C-Arts Magazine.

out of reach

2011-08-28T15:04:00.000+07:00

infertile land

2011-08-28T14:40:00.001+07:00

meandering...

2011-08-28T14:16:00.001+07:00

Idecay

2011-08-28T13:51:00.000+07:00

stained

2011-08-28T12:59:00.000+07:00

vis(t)a

2011-08-18T08:16:00.000+07:00

an artist who cannot speak English is no artist

2011-08-17T11:12:00.001+07:00

By Stilinovic.

cranial vault

2011-08-14T22:25:00.000+07:00

@tobucil

2011-07-28T14:09:00.000+07:00

Discussion at Tobucil, see here for more info.

Transjakarta Busway ticket

2011-07-13T16:26:00.001+07:00

The TransJakarta Busway paper ticket will be replaced by an e-ticket, really? Read here more.

houses without doors (exhibition)

2011-07-12T14:09:00.004+07:00

Rumah Rumah Tanpa Pintu

Organized by jongArsitek

Curated by Danny Wicaksono (Studio Dasar)

Participants: 12akitek; SHAU; SUB Architects; DOT Workshop; Andrew Tirta (ILATAAJ); Indonesian Dreams; Kotakotak; Andreas Susandika; Wagionos; Setiadi Sopandi; HEH Studio

At Dia.Lo.Gue Art Space (Jl.Kemang Selatan 99A, Jakarta) until July 20

And for my review essay see here.

Iwrite

2011-07-10T16:23:00.002+07:00

tower of glass

2011-07-10T16:22:00.002+07:00

propagrahic

2011-07-10T16:12:00.001+07:00

houses without doors: architecture exhibition at dia.lo.gue gallery, Jakarta

2011-07-02T10:54:00.004+07:00

An exhibition by jong arsitek, for more info see here and here.

architecture exhibition at the National Museum, Jakarta

2011-06-30T18:16:00.001+07:00

See here for more info.

revenge

2011-06-27T11:38:00.004+07:00

since when are billboards green spaces?

2011-06-27T11:36:00.002+07:00

tropical modernity: architecture exhibition at Erasmus Huis, Jakarta

2011-06-23T12:54:00.004+07:00

See here for more info.

The Unnamable

2011-06-22T18:40:00.002+07:00

terminal Leuwi Panjang - pt.2

2011-06-19T21:40:00.017+07:00

terminal angkot Kebon Kalapa - pt.5

2011-06-19T19:35:00.010+07:00

terminal Leuwi Panjang

2011-06-13T15:00:00.003+07:00

terminal angkot Kebon Kalapa - pt.4

2011-06-13T14:52:00.010+07:00

second stop: terminal Leuwi Panjang

2011-06-13T14:51:00.003+07:00

Last Thursday I took seven angkots (minibuses). Seven! And where did I go? Nowhere. The angkot took me first to terminal Kebon Kalapa and from there to Terminal Leuwi Panjang and back. By the time I was in the fifth angkot my head was spinning. The angkots – navigating the streets of Bandung – twisting and turning. Leuwi Panjang is my second stop on this journey without destintion. Writing the city. Riding its angkots. Last Thursday I went back, this time around to take photos as well (see the next two postings). To get to Leuwi Panjang I have to pass through Kebon Kalapa.

burn in hell

2011-06-13T14:47:00.001+07:00

revolving door

2011-06-08T23:14:00.001+07:00

Terminal Kebon Kalapa - pt.3

2011-06-05T15:11:00.010+07:00

the signed city

2011-06-05T15:02:00.001+07:00

Kebon Kalapa Terminal - pt.2

2011-06-03T18:12:00.012+07:00

TransJakarta Busway

2011-06-01T18:52:00.002+07:00

Jakarta is congested, its streets simply cannot digest this many vehicles. Jakarta’s government decided to implement the shock doctrine in 2005. One way was the 3-in-1 policy during peek hours (minimum of three persons per car, which is simply sidestepped by renting so-called jockeys). The other way was to reserve one lane for designated buses, the so-called TransJakarta Busway. The TransJakarta Busway and the three-in-one meet mockery, just because it's felt by the well-to-do that it eats up ‘their’ space. And to get people out of their private cars and into the busway the buses needed to be clean and safe, which certainly was true in the beginning, but due to rapid expansion and low maintenance the quality has deteriorated and waiting time at bus stops has increased.

traffic accident

2011-06-01T18:50:00.002+07:00

Around the corner of my office is the police station and when a traffic accident has occurred the damaged cars are parked in front of the station for further investigation. Every time an angkot – minibus public transportation – is involved in a traffic accident its damage is always on its front, which means that angkot drivers rear end the vehicle driving in front.

Kebon Kalapa Terminal - first impression

2011-05-31T20:04:00.015+07:00

writing the city Bandung, riding its angkots...

2011-05-31T19:57:00.003+07:00

Last week I started a voyage. Not around the globe or an exotic location but a venture into the streets of the city I live in – Bandung, Indonesia. So this is the basic idea: I am going around the city by angkot – minibus public transportation – each time I will take a different route to end up at a different terminal. Last week I started by taking the Dago-Kalapa angkot from Dago, nearby my home in Kanayakan, to the terminal Kebon Kalapa (for those of you who are familiar with Bandung, this is just south of alun-alun and just north of monumen lautan api; see the map above for the pointing finger). So far it has been lots of fun – seeing a new part of the city where I have lived for the better of the past eight years, joking with the drivers, having coffee at the terminal – while at the very same it has so far been pretty exhausting – beside the five odd hours I spent per week in the angkot to go from my home to my office vice versa I spend now numerous extra hours on the streets riding the city’s minibuses. The goal is not only the see more of the city I call my home but also to try to find new ways to write (about) the city. For my first impressions of the Kebon Kalapa terminal see the next post.

tattooing the city

2011-05-31T18:59:00.002+07:00

welcome to Jakarta...

2011-05-26T13:53:00.002+07:00

....and please stay in Jakarta...

anakharam ibukota

2011-05-26T13:49:00.003+07:00

We in Bandung are the evil children of the capital city, i.e. Jakarta (ibu=mother, but ibu kota means capital city (literally: mother city or mother of cities), anak=child(ren) and haram=sinful).

propaganda

2011-05-26T13:37:00.003+07:00

"Siliwangi adalah rakyat Jawa Barat, rakyat Jawa Barat adalah Siliwangi," which means: "The army division Siliwangi is the people of West Java, the people of West Java are the army division Siliwangi." The army division Siliwangi's headquarter is in Bandung, the capital of West Java province, and this year it exists 65 years. The text on the banner is New Order lingo (New Order was the name of Suharto's authoritarian regime, which ended in '98), I cannot imagine that many still buy into this kind of language, but why then are these banners all around Bandung sponsored by major companies?

is Bandung really an emerging creative city?

2011-05-26T13:35:00.002+07:00

what is pulling you?

2011-05-21T14:30:00.002+07:00

TINA

2011-05-17T18:27:00.002+07:00

Recently, I read Andy Merrifield’s book on Guy Debord. Debord is the author of the 1967 book The Society of the Spectacle, which he also turned into a movie, in both book and film he claims that social relations are mediated by empty signs (images, logos, brand names, celebrities, spin doctors, marketing, pr, etc.), and he is one of the founders of the Situationist International. Merrifield writes about the eighties: “just when the Right was triumphant about its ‘meta-narrative’ of the market, the Left started to proclaim its incredulity to all meta-narratives, to all big stories about humanity and progress. Soon they’d begin to proclaim a viewpoint called ‘postmodern’. […] Thus the paradox: the Right had set off on its long march across the entire globe, dispatching its market missionaries, spreading TINA [There Is No Alternative] doctrines, cajoling here, oppressing there, using heavy artillery to smash anything in its path. At the same time, the Left had embarked on an intricate philosophical debate about the meaning of meaning.” The Left criticized here is what Richard Rorty calls the Cultural Left. The Cultural Left is busy reading books while the Right declares the end of history and, thus, blocking political/ideological discussions – and much needed change. No longer believing in a less cruel world (cruelty is the worst vice according to Judith Shklar, because it leads to fear), no longer believing in a world less humiliating (Avishai Margalit claims that humiliation is caused by an attitude that economic inequality is morally deserved and thus should bring an array of privileges) is cynical. One approach is what Debord called détournement, i.e. we turn TINA on her head, so we will again have the possibility to see new openings and act accordingly. Debord: “a lie that can no longer be challenged becomes a form of madness.”

Office Orchitect

2011-05-17T08:53:00.004+07:00

Singaporean Michael Lee’s work Office Orchitect investigates the relationship between space and desire. For this work, Lee invented the fictional architect KS Wong (1911-1982?), a child prodigy who started designing at the tender age of eleven. At the third Singapore Biennale open house, Lee presented models of several of Wong’s designs, one more outlandish than the other. Lee says: “When objects and spaces lose their utilitarian functions, their aesthetic ones come to the foreground.” Aesthetics is the fine art of expressing as such. Aesthetics is according to philosopher John Dewey not a special realm of experience; he states that art is “a quality of doing and of what is done.” Art is thus a form of activity, i.e. the interaction with our world. Alienation – from nature, from others, from one’s self, from our creations (including the built form) – makes the aesthetic experience close to impossible. Today, the utilitarian (including the monetary) perspective is the dominant way to perceive the forms in our world. Marx, according to Zizek, said of alienation: “they do know it, but they are doing it.” Today, so claims Zizek, we should define alienation as: “they know very well what they are doing, but still they are doing it.” In short, our alienation has taken a cynical turn.

Lee tries to imagine a different Singapore. However, Lee calls Wong ‘anally rigorous’, how can a person who is excessively orderly and fussy be a catalyst to imagine an alternative for the excessively ordered Singapore?

In this week’s issue of the English edition of Indonesian weekly Tempo Magazine my review of the Singapore Biennale will be published.

The photo above is by SB2011. For more photos of Michael Lee’s work see here.

from green to blue cities

2011-05-12T19:01:00.000+07:00

Jakarta’s elite wants to learn – or copy? – from Singapore. However, what is copied? The high-rise buildings and mega shopping malls. What lessons are missed? Compared to Singapore, in Jakarta there is not much green space – asphalt and concrete rule – and in Jakarta private car ownership isn’t limited. Therefore, unlike in Singapore, in Jakarta air pollution is rampant. (The photo above was taken in Singapore – when was the last time Jakartans enjoyed a blue sky? – and this photo is not manipulated to make my point.)

proof of reminder

2011-05-11T14:33:00.003+07:00

I have been in Indonesia since March 5, 2003, 38 pages of stamps in two passports later...

Lontar

2011-05-11T14:30:00.003+07:00

May 19 Lontar organizes a book launch and discussion at Aksara Bookstore (Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta).

envy & loathing

2011-05-10T20:22:00.005+07:00

Each and every society has it own fair share of contradictions; Singapore hides – repressed by the state – them fairly well. In Indonesia, contradictions lay out in the open. In Singapore it requires reading in-between-between the lines. Indonesians seemingly embrace contradictions. For example, they envy as well as loath Singapore. They envy Singapore for the fact that things work properly, public transportation is a case in point. They envy Singapore’s prosperity. On the other hand, they would fear and loath if their cities would become as ordered as Singapore, they would find such order utterly boring and repressing.

Bodyscape

2011-05-09T18:02:00.003+07:00

The only Indonesian contribution to the Singapore Biennale is by the Jakarta-based artist collective ruang rupa: Singapore Fiction, which is their usual gleeful mess. But at the Singapore Art Museum, one of the venues of SB2011, two parallel exhibitions can be visited: It’s Now or never II, New Contemporary Art Acquisitions from Southeast Asia and Negotiating Home, History and Nation, Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011. Many of the big names of the contemporary art scene in Indonesia are present at these two parallel events, and hopefully, one day, these artworks will be shown again in Indonesia. Titarubi’s work Bodyscape is one of these artworks (earlier it was shown at CP Biennale 2005 in Jakarta, which was closed down after attacks by FPI because the joint work Pinkswing Park by Agus Suwage and Davy Linggar was considered ‘immoral’). In 2008, Titarubi made an on-site work for the National Museum of Singapore: Surrounding David, after Michaelangelo’s David, however, Titarubi’s David is much taller. Titarubi’s David was subsequently censored, its genitals had to be covered – its private parts needed to remain private.

?

2011-05-09T17:53:00.002+07:00

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei says that the only thing an artist can do is to raise questions. A biennale is a cacophony of questions. And we – we art lovers – add even more questions. And sometimes a title is enough to trigger our imagination, like this one by Australian Robert Macpherson: I see a can of paint as a painting unpainted.

frostdrawing

2011-05-09T17:48:00.003+07:00

Polish artist Gosia Wlodarczak made eerie drawings on windows (frost drawings) at the Singapore Biennale.

autopsy

2011-05-08T15:59:00.002+07:00

“The act of seeing with one’s own eye.” This text is a reference to a movie by avant gardist Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) and it is a literal translation of autopsy. The scribble is part of the work of Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov. However, he didn’t actually come to Singapore, because is scared to death of flying. He invited Singaporean filmmaker and artist Liao Jiekai to come to Sofia and on his return he created the work for Solakov.

the Merlion: statue/museum/hotel

2011-05-04T10:11:00.003+07:00

For the duration of the Singapore Biennale, the Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi has constructed a hotel around a statue (the Merlion) at Marina Bay. During the day it is open for visitors (approximately 1000 per day), and for the night you can book the room (for 150 Singapore Dollar). As Marina Bay is a very touristic area of Singapore, many who visit the Merlion Hotel just happen to be in the area and have no clue about the biennale, and they love the hotel: patiently they wait for their turn to enter, before entering they hastily kick out their shoes and after entering they, as good tourists, take pictures of each other (especially next to the Merlion's head hovering above the king-size bed. Singapore daily Today's art critic Mayo Martin spent a night in this makeshift but luxury hotel and he felt watched, even though he didn't detect any CCTVs, but he thinks this a good metaphor of Singapore.

what if...

2011-05-01T15:11:00.002+07:00

The great thing about visiting an art exhibition not in a museum or gallery specifically designed for art – the so-called modernist white cube – but in, for example, an abandoned building is that our senses are opened up to the poetry of the unexpected by hoping for surprises in untidy corners. One of the venues of the Singapore Bienalle is the old Kallang airport. In a hangar stands Elmgreen&Dragset’s installation ‘Deutsche Scheune/German Barn’ (bit too neat for a barn though), I walked around their installation (the barn seems to be life size) when something in the far end of the hangar caught my eye (see photo above). Most likely this is not an artwork in any traditional sense, but it reminded me of what Michel Foucault wrote: “Why should the lamp or the house be an art object, but not our life?”

"To enter a system I locate the loophole"

2011-04-30T14:06:00.003+07:00

A still from the work 'evidence locker' by Jill Magid, which is now shown at Singapore Biennale.

the strict father

2011-04-28T10:34:00.004+07:00

In Singapore, security cameras are omnipresent, no-smoking signs are everywhere, and hefty penalties are levied if one does not obey these signs.

voracious

2011-04-28T10:18:00.003+07:00

Singapore Art Biennale

2011-04-28T10:08:00.003+07:00

Singapore Art Biennale until 15 May.

The artwork on the banner in the photo above is by Candice Breitz and is titled Factum.

Java's Machine

2011-04-04T17:06:00.006+07:00

Jompet Kuswidananto's excellent solo exhibition 'Java's Machine: Family Chronicle' can be visited at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space in Bandung until 17 April (video interviews can be watched here). Saturday 9 April at 15.00 an artist talk will be organized and one of the speakers will be professor Bambang Sugiharto. (Here an interview with Jompet in English.)

first meal of the day

2011-03-29T20:36:00.001+07:00

pair of shoes

2011-03-28T18:00:00.003+07:00

2011-03-28T13:58:00.001+07:00

fallen art

2011-03-27T16:37:00.001+07:00

Different and 100% independent

2011-02-27T14:59:00.001+07:00

See here (and here for more streetart in Indonesia).